How to identify balanced, aged, and floral notes in wine

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Last week was all about the meaning of balance, aged, and floral when talking about wine.

But how do you know if the glass of wine you have swirling in front of you hits any of those notes?

Here’s how…

How to identify balanced, aged, and floral notes in wine

Here’s a simple guide that’s worked for me most of the time:

Balance

Sight: Remember the tannins from last week? Balanced red wines will often be brick-red as the tannins have gotten softer from age. Younger reds are often purple or ruby when you hold them up to light. They also look brighter. Why?

Tannins are still robust and highly acidic at this point. For white wines, they’ll be deeper-golden or amber-colored liquids.

Smell: Swirl the wine in your glass to release the aromas. Then take a deep sniff. Balanced wines will smell like that perfect blend of egusi soup with dried fish. Nothing should seem out of sync. You know, like the aroma of the fish overpowering the aroma of the soup.

Yes, I like food.

Taste: Take a sip. Let the wine coat your tongue. If you notice increased saliva production or a sharp tangy sensation on the sides and front of your mouth (similar to when you bite into a lemon), the wine no balance ooo.

If it’s too sweet, or you feel like you rushed whisky into your mouth (alcohol heat), that is no balanced wine.

It should feel even and smooth.

Age

Nose and Palate: When you sniff or take a sip, you should notice complex flavor structures. Let me break that down.

The Sommelier often asks if you can taste leather, earth, or nuts. Now, your flavor repertoire is often a function of what you’ve experienced. So, if you can’t taste leather, that’s OK.

What you can look out for is:

Does the wine feel softer in your mouth?

Does its flavor remind you of how the earth smells after rain?

Does it feel smoky?

Does it have any of that sweet smell you get when you open up a bottle of nuts like cashews or peanuts?

Floral Notes

Aroma: Floral notes will often have an intense or soft flowery aroma. If you don’t know how flowers smell, problem dey ooo.

Taste: Floral notes can range from Rose to Lavender to Violet, depending on the bottle. You’ll often find the dried rose aroma in Pinot Noir bottles. Moscato and Reisling wines often have fragrant intense Jasmine notes. And Syrah bottled in the Rhône Valley of France will have Lavender notes. Chardonnays come with the sweet sticky flavor you find near orange trees.

One shortcut to picking up floral notes is sniffing at your laundry pods, detergents, air freshener sprays, or decorative candles.

Some bottle to try out?

1. Barolo from Piedmont, Italy: You'll usually get floral notes of rose and some violet combined with a deeper flavor of tar (smoky, burnt, and slightly bitter).

2. Côte-Rôtie Syrah from Northern Rhône, France: Lavender notes, spicy and meaty undertones.

3. Château Margaux from Bordeaux, France: Violet notes and a deeper flavor of tobacco and dark fruit (slightly tart and full like blackberries or plums).

Now, go uncork a bottle. It’s the weekend.

Dozie ❤️