Photos by Sean Kimmons

by SEAN KIMMONS

I have to admit, wine tasting was an unusual experience for me. First, I’m told to drink first-class wine, swish its enchanting flavors around my mouth and then when I’m ready to swallow the sweet nectar, I’m asked to spit it out.

What’s the fun in that? Why waste perfectly good wine, I thought.

Wine expert Oscar Montes Iga, who works at the Driftwood Estate Winery, said that wine tasting is not about drinking, it’s about recognizing the diverse qualities of a wine’s color, smell and taste.

If a person were to swallow each sample, Iga says, his or her tongue would become numb and spoil their taste buds when inspecting other wines.

I knew this would be a daunting challenge for me since I’m used to chugging cheap beer from a mason jar rather than scrutinizing wine. But I still jumped at the offer to experience the foreign concept.

Before I walked up to the winery’s bar, I could only name two kinds of wine – red and white. I never could tell the difference between chardonnay and pinot grigio, or merlot and syrah. My taste buds, I guess, weren’t refined enough to decipher the unique qualities of the grapes packed into wine bottles.

For $5, a wine connoisseur (or an untrained lush like me) can try six of the 14 types of wine crafted at this tranquil winery, which grows seven grape varieties on a 20-acre site. Many of these wines have captured awards in local, national and international competitions in recent years.

A few of the red wines are even christened with Texan identities, such as the Lone Star Cab, a cabernet sauvignon, and Longhorn Red, a blend of cabernet sauvignon and syrah.

There are five steps to wine tasting. One should examine the color, swirl the wine to aerate the aromas, smell it, taste it and savor it. If that’s too hard to memorize, especially while under the influence, try the “five S” steps: see, swirl, sniff, sip and savor.

My first lesson began with Iga pouring an ounce or two of a 2008 chardonnay for my companion and me. We imitated Iga as he examined the wine against a white background to better visualize any impurities.

We then tilted our wine glasses forward to view the wine’s watery edge, basically a clear membrane around the wine. This particular wine had a prominent watery edge, Iga said.

For our next step, we swirled the wine for about 10 seconds to expose its aromas before sticking our nose into the glass for a big whiff. Iga said that the aromas present were lemon, apple, vanilla and other citrus scents.

Typically, aromas are the fruity or floral scents, such as the grape or fruits used to make the wine, while the term “bouquet” should be applied to the byproducts of fermentation or winemaking, like yeast, wood or buttery scents.

The final step was to sip the wine and “chew it” so it touched all parts of the mouth. This method allowed us to perceive the wine better and gauge the accuracy of our smell to our taste.

“You’re trying to figure out exactly what it is made from,” Iga says.

When we were done, we grabbed a nearby jar and spat the wine out, with drips sometimes catching our chins. I guess being a wine snob isn’t so classy after all.

I then reached for some complimentary crackers on the counter to cleanse my palette before I tackled the next sample.
As I progressed through the wine list I noticed that my senses began to pick up certain scents and flavors from the wines. This was a revelation compared to the earlier samples when I nodded mindlessly to Iga’s interpretations.

When the tasting concluded, I was so proud of my first step toward being a posh socialite and purchased an $18 Lone Star Cab to commemorate the event. My companion chose a $16 2009 Orange Muscat, a white wine of fresh citrus and orange blossom aromas and a touch of ginger spice.