How to do a wine tasting

MILLIE: On the occasion of the Mandarin Oriental’s 35th-year anniversary, a fabulous Wine & Spirits event was organized last week and Karla and I were invited. We went with my best friend, Verne Santos Cuyugan Reyes, a wine connoisseur and foodie. The three of us were all looking forward to the grand event for days. As soon as we entered the ballroom, Karla was “natataranta” as she had never seen so much wine and food on display. As I settled myself in a nice, cozy corner, she immediately went around taking pictures and, I’m sure, stuffing her mouth, and came back to me minutes later with a glass of red wine in her hand. I forgot to brief her on the rules for wine tasting but by then it was too late to even try.

Wine tasting is the art of appreciating wine, estimating its value and determining its provenance and age. To taste is not to drink. Wine tasting can be very tiring and difficult for serious wine tasters. Three senses are very important in wine appreciation: the sense of sight to judge the color, limpidity and fluidity; the sense of smell to appreciate the aroma and the bouquet; and lastly the sense of taste to savor and enjoy the wine.

To appreciate wine like a real connoisseur, one swirls the wine as soon as it is poured into the wine glass and takes a good sniff. Take a sip and roll the wine around your tongue but do not swallow; instead spit the liquid into a container reserved exclusively for this purpose before moving on to the next wine. But in this case, the Mandarin Oriental’s purpose was to encourage guests to appreciate the pairing of fabulous wines with excellent food prepared by executive chef Rene Ottlik and the hotel’s team of chefs.

Perfect for pairing with red wine: Jamon Serrano from Spain, hand-carved on the spot

I still remember my wine-tasting classes at the Ecole Hoteliere in Lausanne, Switzerland. It was always held after lunch on a Friday afternoon and my classmates and I would all come out of it happy and tipsy; we would continue drinking in a nearby pub called Pickwick’s.

I may not be able to impart everything I learned in this column, but here are some useful wine-tasting tips to achieve a good and fair judgment when tasting several wines from different regions. It is advisable to try a few bottles of wine at a time during a degustation, as you will not appreciate the wines if you have a bigger selection. First and foremost, one should refrain from smoking while performing the degustation because it affects the palate and one cannot render a good judgment of the wines. One should also be in tiptop shape, not suffering from colds, and no hyperacidity. It is not advisable to conduct the tasting after a heavy meal, although pairing food with wines is permissible. However, in doing so, the wine should complement the food and vice versa. The best time to do the taste test is in the morning. The venue should be well lit, bright and airy.

The general rule when performing a wine tasting: the whites before the reds; the lights before the heavy; the young wines before the aged; the dry wines before the sweet; and the sparkling before the still.

KARLA: Since mom and I were one of the first ones to arrive, we went straight in and didn’t even see that there was a wine and food-pairing guide being given out. As soon as I entered, I got my camera ready and headed to the buffet. We feasted on a glorious, 25-meter gourmet spread by the Mandarin Oriental. The buffet was divided into several stations. There was an area for the hot tapas and appetizers, a dessert bar in the middle, back to back with a station for quiches and pizza-style quiches, a risotto bar with different ingredients to choose from, and a whole wheel of Parmesan for the chefs to shave from and add to the risotto as you ordered. There was also a pasta bar with homemade pastas of red penne, black fusilli and fettuccini.

Refreshing, spatrkling Chandon in an ice-filled tub!

I spent most of my time in the cheese and charcuterie area. They were serving a wide selection of cheeses — mostly our favorites like cave-aged Gruyere, Brie de Normandie, Manchego and other European cheeses. A special raclette station was prepared that showcased the raclette stand as they melted the cheese on the spot. Sidings of marble potatoes, gherkins and pickled onions were also available. Aside from the European cheeses, mom and I were thrilled to find Philippine cheeses as well, and they were really good.

After taking pictures, or maybe even while taking pictures, I started picking from the spread of cheeses and other items. I guess I couldn’t help it, plus the fact that I was hungry. One of mommy’s rules is never to drink on an empty stomach, and I was s-t-a-r-v-i-n-g! Even if the wine merchants and bartenders behind the Cointreau and Bacardi bar were offering me a cocktail, I would just smile and signal that I needed to have something to eat first. Another one of mom’s drinking rules is to never mix my drinks. But then I made up my own rule that it’s okay to mix drinks as long as we are hanging out in a safe place like the house of a really good friend, or at my house. But then, since I was in the presence of my mother and didn’t really drink wine, I hopped over to the Cointreau and Bacardi bar to check out their cocktails. Within five minutes, I was walking back to the sofa with a Cointreau-politan in my hand. I tried it and liked it so much that as soon as I finished the cocktail, tita Verne and I were persuading mom to book a room for the night. We wanted to stay over at the hotel so we could actually drink and not have to worry about driving home. Which brings me to mom’s last drinking rule, which pertains to drunk driving. Everyone knows better than to drink and drive, but I’m pretty sure people always try to push the limit. Since I was my mom’s driver, I also couldn’t enjoy the wines very much. I literally had to swirl, whiff, sip and spit.

Later that evening, mom and I bumped into her friend from Switzerland, Yves Remondulaz. His recommended wine was a grand vin from Bordeaux Chateau La Raze Beauvallet, a 2006 Medoc distributed by Le Cellier. The owner, Jorinda Badilla-Flour, handed us a whole bottle to take home and enjoy.

Mom’s other friend Mike Ozaeta recommended pinot gris and introduced us to the distributor, Lester Harvey of Zen Asia. It was a good white wine and Mom had two glasses on top of all the other wines she tried.

There were many good selections but the three of us were unanimous in going for the best wine available that evening, the Barolo Marcenasco DOCG by winemaker Renato Ratti from the Piedmont region using Nebbiolo grapes. It was full-bodied and robust. According to the tasting notes, it has a bouquet with traces of licorice and tobacco — full-flavored, full-bodied and elegant. It is best paired with grilled red meat, game and aged cheese. It earned 96 points in Wine Spectator 2009 and was No. 1 in Wine Enthusiast 2010. It is distributed by mom’s friend Luciano Zanirato, whose son Luch is among my circle of friends.

Our very own: Blue goat cheese by Malagos Farmhouse from Davao, available at Rustan’s Supermarket.t

So much for a fun evening of wine and food pairing; we got home safe and sound, thank God.

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Send e-mail to milliereyes.foodforthought@gmail.com and karla@swizzlemobilebar.com. Find us on Facebook and read articles you might have missed: Food for Thought by Millie & Karla Reyes.