Emmy Harbo talks wine tasting

Harbo spoke with The Examiner about wine tasting and the cork versus screw cap debate.

What does it take to learn wines and wine tasting?

It definitely takes classes.

We are level two for the International Sommelier Guild, and that helps a lot.

You can do it on your own, but having structure and having a teacher really helps as far as tasting and looking at the colors, the nose and getting an idea of what the varieties are.

The learning curve is long and goes on forever.

I have heard it said that just when you know wines, you get to Italy, and there are 2,000 kinds of grapes.

What does it mean when wine tasters say they can taste the apricot or even grass clippings in a wine?

It?s flavors or aromas in the wine that remind you of another aroma.

It?s not in the wine.

You can smell wet concrete in the wine, and a lot of times that is an indication of minerality.

White wine is grown in a gravel area with lots of stones, and that can be imparted in the wine.

We try, as humans, to connect experiences we have, so it?s sensory memory.

The more you taste the more refined that gets.

Where do you fall on the cork versus screw top debate? Which is better for wines?

The advantage of cork is romance.

And then for the environment, it?s good because the industry grows cork forests and just strips the corks for the wine.

It saves the forests, because it never hurts the trees.

It?s actually better for the environment, and you are not manufacturing another item like a screw top.

The benefit of not using cork is you don?t get corked wines.

The cork has a mold in it that can get into the wine, so they say one in nine bottles have cork taint.

Sometimes you can get a wet dog or cardboard flavor.

The synthetic cork advantage is you can still pull cork with a wine key.

I think it depends on the wine.

If I wanted to age the wine, [I prefer] a cork, but for an Austrian [white], I like a screw top.