Tasting

Tasting 

the evaluation of food and other gustatory products, including tobacco, and their semiprocessed products, as well as of plant raw materials, such as grapes and fruits, by means of the organs of sight, smell, and taste. Tasting is of special importance in viniculture in determining the quality and commercial and consumer value of wine; tasting is also important in the wine-making process. An experienced viniculturist and taster can, by sampling, direct the technological process, augmenting the information about the wine or wine materials that was obtained by chemical analysis or by special instruments.

A disadvantage of tasting is that it is more or less subjective, but its advantage is the absence of any kind of “intermediaries,” or instruments. By tasting, those attributes of wines may be detected which cannot be determined by chemical analysis, such as the difference between vintage and ordinary wines. On the basis of tasting, Soviet wines are rated on a scale of ten, considering the elements of clarity (0.5), color (0.5), bouquet (3), taste (5), and, for champagne, the typicality or the character of the effervescence and foam (1); these points are the maximum for each element.

In tasting tea, the taster takes into account the appearance of the dry tea leaves, the tint of the infusion, the aroma and taste of the infusion, and the appearance of the brewed leaf. In tobacco, the aroma, taste, strength, and presence of tars in the smoke are evaluated.

REFERENCE

Prostoserdov, N. N. Osnovy degustatsii vin. Moscow, 1952.

N. S. OKHREMENKO