To the uninitiated, sticking your nose in a glass of wine and sniffing can seem affected and perhaps somewhat undignified, however this is how you will extract the primary information about wine.
Science tell us that around 80% of flavours come from the smell. As one of our five senses, smell is part of the limbic system that controls behaviours, emotions and memory. Think the wonderful impact of coffee aroma or how smell can invoke a long forgotten memory.
There are many 'smell' descriptors for wines, ranging from fruits, herbs, flowers, earth, grass, tobacco, butterscotch, toast, vanilla, mocha, chocolate plus many more. You may well ask, are they serious? Yes ‘they’ are and you can also ‘learn’ how to do it – but it takes time.
If you ever want know how important smell is for wine judges, just be around if they think they are catching a cold prior to participating on a judging panel. No smell, no taste. Total disaster. They lose the equipment to do the job.
With smell rating 80% of the experience, you are doing the wine and yourself a disservice if you don’t sniff first. Anyone can participate; designated drivers can have a go, children can also be ‘allowed to sniff’. Their comments can be devastatingly accurate and quite amusing. It also is teaching them to understand and respect wine.
Developing wine appreciation means taking every opportunity to taste wine. Different vintages of the same variety and same winemaker. Or different winemakers same vintage. A splash of each wine - no need for a full glass. It is so much easier to learn when you are ‘seeing’ the same wines together. If possible, include award winning wines in the selection as this will give you an independent and professional benchmark.
In the beginning I couldn’t tell the difference between Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. Highly embarrassed I turned to a winemaker (not Tim) and asked if he could sort it out for me.
I handed him the glass and he said “Sorry, but you are wearing hand cream and I can’t smell a thing about the wine”. In this case an overpowering perfume excluded all others. I can’t be really sure, not having done a ‘sniff test’, but I believe many winemakers and judges avoid perfumes and aftershave. Incidentally he did tell me what was what. He did that by looking at the colour.
Ask questions. If it is a struggle to recognise a smell or flavours listen to what others have to say. You may not agree but it will help. Next step is putting the wine in your mouth and actually tasting – but that's another story...
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During the 2019 vintage a friend offered to spend a day helping in the vineyard, “I had no idea how busy or how hard the work is.” he said. “I was running all day.”
Yes, vineyards during vintage are extremely busy and with mechanical harvesting as a an alternative, the action can go through the night as well. Getting grapes to the winery in good condition is an art in itself.
On arrival at the winery some grape varieties are crushed, juice extracted and pumped to stainless steel refrigerated tanks, while others are sent as whole berries to start the fermenting process in large open, stainless steel or plastic tubs called fermenters. To the uninitiated it is daunting process but somehow it all ends up in the right place.
A winery is a place of organised chaos. It is a mixture of late nights, early mornings, solving issues on the run, finding lost bins and missing / late trucks, little sleep and strong coffee. Bearers of vintage cakes and other food are loved, the winery dogs bring light amusement, while truck drivers, and laboratory technicians keep everything moving.
Some years ago a young French winemaker who was working a vintage in Australia said in his heavy French accent. “I will not be back, they do not stop for lunch.”
The Adelaide Hills 2019 vintage came and went with indecent speed. In most areas there were too few grapes. Not just a few kilos but tons less than anticipated. To the point it was tempting during picking to save single berries from under the vines., “Oops, you missed one”.
The primary cause was strong winds and rain in November 2018 then with hot weather in January 19 the light crops ripened rapidly by the last week of February and vintage was over very quickly and early. Tim celebrated his tenth Easter off in the last 55 years.
2018 vintage was one of the few Tim awarded a 10/10 for the red wine. At this stage the 2019 grapes, although not qualifying for 10/10 are also showing great potential. Sadly there will be a great deal less of it than we would like.
Next step, making great wine. But that's another story.
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My connection to Knappstein wines started at a very early age when my father, a commercial airline pilot, retuned home with a case of Clare Valley Riesling, given to him by his co-pilot, Noel Knappstein.
My father, admired by his family for his success as an aviator, was from good farming stock. They were more a beer at the pub or a swig of port at the end of a hard day type people, so the arrival of bottled wine was a strong memory.
In the late 60's I met Tim Knappstein and his wife at a dinner party. While making polite conversation I mentioned the Riesling from his family winery.
Then around 2001 fate, life or destiny stepped in and Tim and I met again, both adrift in a sea of 'singleness' (that's the condensed version), we started dating.
In time we were sharing our lives on a more permanent bases and oh, surprise, ‘The Riesling’ appeared again. Tim produced three bottles of Riesling he had made in the late 60’s and early 70's ‘The last in captivity”, he claimed. The first was magnificent. We drank the most divine, golden nectar of aged Riesling you are ever likely to experience.
With great expectations the gathered throng watch as he pulled the cork of the second bottle, sniffed it and said, “buggered.” As was the third. "Well I will just have to find something more modern" he stated philosophically. Meanwhile I was having my first cathartic lesson in how to pour wine down the sink and the conversation turned to 'cork' - but that's another story.