So this is Part 3. Previously in my post I talked about getting a job in a wine bar.
Working in the wine bar has been a very interesting job. My working hours are from 4 pm to 11 pm daily. On top of the short working hours, I get to taste many types exquisite wines ranging from Champagne, Whites, Reds, Port, Dessert Wines, and many more. I even get to drink expensive wines.
It was a temporary job that I took while waiting for my Air Force Pilot Confirmation. During this time, I get to learn a lot of things about life and being observant to customers and the surrounding. Sometimes, I get to see many types of people, ranging from the very rich who spends to the not so rich who wants to show off.
As time goes by I get to understand something about human. Humans can be interesting beings.
Sometimes I get to see people coming in and opening very expensive bottles of wine just to impress the lady sitting opposite. Some of them would ask me to sit with them and chat with them over a drink or two to vent off their stress, and unhappiness.
It is also at this period of my life, I got to learn about wine tasting. Wine tasting is an interesting experience that I think I may not get any more for free. Being a staff in a wine bar, I get to learn about wine tastings and get to sit in tasting classes for no charge. I get to be paid drinking wine too. It was really awesome!
I was taught by the Bar owner, he is Singapore's first Masters of Wine. It is a certificate that is not easily attainable as it requires many years of tasting wines and refining the taste buds and improving the sense of smell.
He breaks down the steps to wine tasting to 4 basic simple steps, even till today I still remember them.
- Swirling
- Snorting
- Gargle
- Spitting
1. Swirling
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We swirl the glass of wine in a circular motion. It takes practice to swirl a glass of wine elegantly and masterfully. I did have my ugly moments where I swirled out some wine off the glass.
2. Snorting
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When it comes to snorting, it basically means smelling the wine. Every wine has its own aroma. Just from smelling the wine, we can identify which grape variety it is, and any other smell profile.
In wine tasting, we may describe the smell profile as floral, grass, citrus, apples, pencil shavings, oaky, burnt rubber, dark fruits, and many more. Some winemakers may take some smell profile offensive. If we tell them their wine smells of burnt rubber, cat's pee, easy drinking, they are going to take it seriously.
3. Gargle
When it comes to gargle, we meant by using the tongue and leaving a small gap between our closed lips to allow sucking of breath through the wine in our mouth. In this process, we actually get to taste more of the wine. When we do that motion, it actually allows the smell profile of the wine to be carried with the air as we breathe through our nasal.
4.Spitting
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Yes, it true! Spitting! Whenever it comes to wine tastings, a spit tone is a must. And we have to spit out the wine into a stream of squirt from our mouth by leaving a small gap between our lips.
So why do we spit? If we are going to taste 20 wines and grade which ones to choose for our restaurant, we can't possibly drink all 20 of them at one go, and it does not make logistical sense to do it sporadically, no one has time for so many trips! So that's one of the reasons we spit.
I may not be the expert on wine tasting, but at least I get to taste the great ones. Sometimes I was wondering if my palate has been spoilt by those great expensive wines when it comes to the selection of wine, I became snobbish.
After about 2 months of work with the bar, I got my reply from the Air Force to attend my interview.
It was great news to me, and I was very excited about it.
Working in the wine bar is fun and interesting at the same time. Sometimes, I still miss working there.
This will be the end of my post no. 3 of A little bit about myself! Stay tuned and please comment and give me feedback on how I can improve my post, I'm open to any mistakes.
Thank you for reading!