168 Wine Cellar 酒窖 Taiwan ~ Wino Abroad

168 Wine Cellar 酒窖 Taiwan

www.168wine.com.tw

中正區汀州路一段68號

No. 68, Sec. 1, Ting Zhou Rd., Zhong Zheng Dist., Taipei City, Taiwan

Phone: (02) 2338 1008

Hours:

Monday-Saturday 12PM-7PM

Sunday Closed

168 is an if you are in the neighborhood sort of shop, or if you are in the mood to attend a wine tasting class. Most of their classes are conducted in Chinese, but if you are lucky a winery representative may be present, if the importer has invited them to Taiwan.

To keep in the loop about 168's upcoming events follow their Facebook, just click the FB icon above.

You know that term, "stop to smell the roses?" That is exactly what you should be doing when you are sticking your nose into a glass of wine. Sometimes when I attend a tasting, or are giving a tasting, I'll ask what other people smell in their glass...many rookie wine drinkers will tell me," It smells like wine." But what does "wine" even smell like? How is it that some tasters can smell all these amazing fruits and spices and go on and on about what they are smelling and you can't pick out one distinct aroma if it were to save your life.

Wine smells like a great many things! here are some tips on sniffing those "things" out.

Step one: Train your nose! Smell everything! When you are in a supermarket take extra time to smell the produce. If there are spices out, take time to smell them. If you have spices readily at home, open them up and take a whiff. If you are having a slice of cheese, or even putting some whip cream on your hot chocolate, smell it! familiarize yourself with what dairy products smell like, because yes...certain wine making practices and ageing techniques in wine, can mimic the scent of dairy products.

When you are at the park or in a garden, try to remember what fresh cut grass smells like vs. dried. Smell all the flowers that you can. Compare fresh roses to dried ones. Compare fresh fruits, to dried fruits, to fruit pies, to fruit jams.

I tend to think we take our sense of smell for granted and don't think about its' use much, but if you do stop to smell the roses every once in a while, you'll then start to build a memory bank of aromas that you can refer to the next time you attend a wine tasting.

Step two: Utilize the Aroma wheel. Keep an aroma wheel handy when you attend tastings. Sometimes seeing the words on paper can give you that extra push in deciding if that red you are smelling displays aromas of under ripen strawberry, or cranberry, or maybe even both.

From Wine Folly's Aroma Wheel article: winefolly.com/tutorial/wine-aroma-wheel-100-flavors

Step three: Take a trip down memory lane. Just the other day I tasted a Shiraz from Heathcote, Australia and right away I got big whiffs of pine needles, cedar, and blackberry straight off the vine. This wine took me back to being at my great grandparent's ranch house in Sonoma, California. Right away I was in love with this wine, because it brought me back to such a fond place in my memory as a child.

Step four: Don't second guess yourself. When you dive into a glass and start smelling, write down what you think you smell right away. Don't second guess it! Wine is subjective and personal, so what you may be smelling in your glass, may be a bit different from what your neighbor is smelling. I've had Cabs that smelt of mint, Beaujolais that smelled like bubble gum, and even a Sauv Blanc that smelled like Orange Julius. Yes! Orange Julius, that orange beverage that was a mix of ice, orange juice, milk, powdered egg whites, and vanilla flavoring that you could find at the many malls in America. Now...if you weren't a teenager in America walking the malls during the time Orange Julius stands were still in business, you would have no idea what I was talking about. Again pointing out that picking up different aromas in wine is a personal experience.