The Box Selection
For this box, we wanted to pay homage to the country whose wines the whole world envies: France!
We have therefore selected three wines which demonstrate the diversity of its terroirs, with very different colors, climates and taste profiles. Health !
The tasting
Pro Tip : There is an optimal wine tasting order. We start with the sparkling wines, then the whites and rosés, then the reds, and finally the sweet ones. The idea is to respect a rise in power to excite the taste buds without saturating them.
The wines are presented in the optimal tasting order.
Prepare the tasting
• Our tasting boxes are designed to offer you an optimal tasting experience. It's up to you to choose whether you want to taste the wines in the box all at once or spread the experience over several evenings!
• The capacity of our bottles is chosen to allow 2 people to taste the wines offered.
• Be careful, not all should be drunk at the same temperature. We invite you to consult the ideal tasting temperature indicated in the box leaflet, or in the wine presentation sheet below.
A good glass plays a lot in the perception of the wine , since it is its shape which will determine parameters such as the concentration of aromas towards the nose at the top of the glass, the aeration of the wine which depends on the size of the area of contact with air, but also the temperature of the wine, depending on the contact area between the wine and the glass.
To begin with, we recommend that you use "INAO" glasses , the shape of which has been scientifically designed to ensure optimal tasting of all types of wine.
Otherwise, any “tulip” shaped glass will do very well to allow the aromas to develop in the glass and concentrate them towards the nose.
A pack of plain, unsalted crackers will do the trick to cleanse the palate between each wine. Indeed, the flour they contain will absorb the taste of the previous wine, and refresh the taste buds without leaving a new taste in the mouth.
Otherwise, any type of neutral food will play this role very well : bread, pretzel and especially water! This will help avoid the phenomenon of “palate fatigue” which happens when you layer too many flavors at once.
The tasting stages
• Indication of the age of the wine
Tilt the glass on a white surface to differentiate a young wine from an older wine.
• Indications on alcohol/glycerol content, and residual sugar content
Keep the glass slightly tilted and rotate it gently to see the droplets form and color along the wall. These are the tears (or legs) of wine.
• The first nose
Tilt the glass at 45° and bring it closer to the nose without shaking the glass to smell the first aromas.
This step is above all revealing the faults of the wine: cork taste, vinegar taste, oxidation, reduction.
• The second nose
Swirl the wine inside the glass for a few seconds, which results in the wine becoming tangy and therefore releasing the secondary aromas.
This step should bring out other, less volatile aromas.
Take a small sip of the wine in your mouth and swirl it with your tongue to permeate all areas of the mouth and capture all the flavors.
The ultimate technique is retro-olfaction: inhaling a stream of air through the mouth while keeping the wine there, then exhaling it through the nose.
You can then swallow the wine, or spit it out into a small container provided for this purpose.
The connoisseurs' corner
Radioactivity can help determine the age of a wine
To avoid counterfeits, it is possible to determine the year of harvest of a wine by measuring its radioactivity level. If it is quite old, the vines used have had tiny traces linked to the first nuclear tests and the Chernobyl accident.