Wine on the Radio - March 9, 2004

Basics of Taste with Patrick Fegan

We visited with Patrick W. Fegan, Director of the Chicago Wine School to talk about what tastes to be aware of when sipping wine.  

"I tell my students to look, number one, for cleanliness - in this day and age, that's not a hard thing to do because of modern technology.  I also look for complexity.  If they can smell or taste the wine and say one thing to describe it, the wine is fairly simple.  If they can say four or five or six things whether it's vegetables or leather or something like that, then the wine is more complex.

I also look for concentrations sometimes wines are very thin.  Then last, jug wines - you can't taste them after fifteen seconds after having swallowed them. 

With well made, interesting red and white wines you have a two-minute-long or more finish." 

Pop the cork™ - and check out the finish.

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