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How a sniff can elicit the quality

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WEEK two of Chris Baker's wine appreciation class and the topic of the evening: the purpose and procedures of wine tasting.

The most important sense in determining a wine's composition, age, condition and quality is smell. Aroma was easier to remember than colour or flavour so to help assess a wine correctly, Mr Baker advised everyone to identify each wine with one characteristic - smell.

Assistance with terminology came in the notes for the week, which included a long list of the most common adjectives used by wine tasters.

If ''burnt'', ''dirty'' and ''jammy'' did not spring to mind when faced with explaining a wine's aroma, Mr Baker offered solace. ''Choose a term you understand,'' he said. ''One that will trigger your wine memory on later occasions.'' To illustrate the points raised, three cabernet sauvignons - from Bordeaux, New Zealand and Chile - were tasted over the course of the evening.

The Bordeaux and New Zealand wines were classic examples of the genre, consisting of a blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc grapes. The Chilean, however, was 100 per cent cabernet sauvignon.

''Cabernet sauvignon is the king of the black grape,'' Mr Baker said.

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