Now it’s time to bring the wine to lips and tongue, complex organ spattered with taste buds which will be responsible for collecting much of the wine flavors, and all the tactile sensations produced by the wine, and transfer them to the brain.
The primary tastes, sweet, salty, sour and bitter, will dominate this first fase, in such a way that the most dominant will influence the outcome.
The first sensations to fill the mouth in contact with the wine are the sugary and vinous ones, and these are substituted by others when the tongue shakes the wine. The rest of taste sensations are transmitted retronasally through the oro-pharyngeal cavity.
Wine tasting can be classified in three steps which, even though different, represent a global unit where the sum of sensations is collected.
- Palate or attack: (2-3 seconds) where sweet and thermal sensations appear.
- Evolution: (5-12 seconds) when moving the wine in the mouth acid develops and salty and bitter tastes are detected.
- Aftertaste: (3-15 seconds) the last sensations are felt as well as the retronasal aromas, which last from the moment we swallow or spit the wine.
Depending on the intensity of these sensations in the mouth, we will talk about the wine as smooth or aggressive, light or extensive, short or long.