Foam gives sparkling wine a lightness that cannot be imitated with a siphon. More precisely, you can imitate something, but to no avail. Because the bubbles will be completely different – large, instantly flying up to the surface and disappearing. In a decent sparkling wine, the bubbles look different. They are tiny, they rise to the surface quickly, but without undue swiftness, and at the same time they do not burst at the first contact with air, but form a persistent but gentle foam. Experts call this foam “mousse”, and this is how it should be – like mousse.
Note that the quality of the foam can vary depending on the skill of the person pouring the wine. Sparkling wine should be poured slowly, taking the glass in hand, tilting it and directing the thinnest possible stream of wine onto its wall. It is necessary to pour it in two steps, after the first one, letting the foam settle for a few seconds, and then continuing the work. If you direct a trickle of wine to the bottom of a vertically standing glass, the foam rises in a lush cap and quickly falls off – this will not affect the taste of the wine, but you will not be able to evaluate the play of bubbles and the quality of the foam.
The second quality criterion for sparkling wine is its aroma. It can be faint, bright or harsh, fruity or, sorry, yeasty, or even just plain pleasant or unpleasant. It is impossible to say which aroma is better, since this is purely a matter of taste and personal experience.
The third criterion is, of course, taste. Regardless of the sugar content in wine, it can be characterized as strong or weak, sharp, expressionless or light. Among the vices of wine can be attributed strong alcoholism – if the wine unambiguously gives off vodka, it should be understood that this wine is tasteless; if you think otherwise, then you should develop taste. No offense.
The fourth criterion is aftertaste. It can be pleasant or vice versa, as well as long or unstable. It should be noted that to define it, one must tune in to a philosophical mood, and no sparkling wine contributes to this.
It should be noted that comparisons of the taste and aroma of wine with autumn leaves, hot tar and rotten russula are entirely on the conscience of wine critics, who lack metaphors to illustrate their enthusiasm. Tasters without much experience note more obvious things.
For example, a wine can have an aroma of tannins (because it was aged in an oak barrel), a hint of red or black fruits, sometimes shrinking to currants or cherries (this characterizes exclusively red wines), as well as the flavor of the original grapes (which is typical, for example , for muscat wines).