The Sight for the wine

When the visual impulses reach the eye´s retina, they pass to the back through the optic nerves. Then in the optic chiasm, all the fibres from the two halves cross each other, going to the opposite side (the ones in the right going left and the fibres that come from the left go to the right). That way optic ribbons are formed that will reach the visual cortex in the last term, situated in the occipital region. There exist in wines a close relation between: The appearance of the color, its substantial constitution, its degree of evolution, the color is the precursor of degustation and implicitly announces, in a big way, the sensations that the aroma and the taste will later discover.

Wine color

Wine color is evaluated according to three characteristics: purity, intensity and shade or tone. If we begin with the visual appreciation of wine, we can discern two main aspects: the type of color and the intensity. According to A. Razunglar, the color type can be defined by noting the principal and secondary colors that contribute to the tonality, as is seen in a young Syrah wine - principally red, with secondary bluish effects. The color of red wines normally varies from a violet-red in a young wine, becoming more ruby or purple as it matures, and developing an orange hue as it begins to age

Rose wine

Among the roses, one can note varying hues of cherry, rose, dusky pink and even earthy tones when the wine matures. In white wines, a very pleasing range of greenish yellow color is predominant. When a younger white wine appears golden, it is often a sign of oxidation, and thus, a sign of deterioration; however, a golden hue is a hallmark of liqueur white wines. Razungles believes that intensity should be taken into account when considering the secondary hues as well as the principal color. Thus, according to the author, in a red wine, we might observe: intense red, faint blue (secondary), ruby red with pomegranate nuances, and so on. Clarity or transparency: this is of utmost importance in the various stages of development of all wines, from fermentation to bottling.

The Olfactory sense

As Michael Broadbent pointed out in his book 'A Guide to Wine Approaching and Tasting', the olfactory sense is perhaps our most elementary and primitive sense. Above all other senses, it appeals to the memory in a very direct way. The olfactory bulb is in very narrow contact to memory areas of the brain, so it acts immediately in recognition and identification. The odor stimuli, originated by certain substances in solution, contact a great amount of very complex cells located in the nose. These substances can penetrate in vapor form. In the case of wine, they are transported by aldehydes and volatile esters.

Several authors of tasting materials have proposed a classification of aromas with the goal of avoiding the frequent anarchy in respect to describing wine scents. It has been proposed to group the scents of wine into sets or families. We will cite within these principal families - fruit, animal, etc. - the most common. We have, for example, among the fruity scents, those of strawberry, currant, raspberry (the most frequent), blackcurrant (very delicate), as well as the citric aromas, grapefruit, for example. Among the animal scents, the most common is the smell of leather. But there are also the chemical scents, a very common one among them is that of sulphuric acid.