Tasting a Bourgogne wine, which can be compare to an art accessible to every enlightened lover, calls for three of our five senses: sight, smell, and taste.

Sight 

First of all, the first contact is through the eye: the robe of a wine is revealed in a gleam of light and can be limpid, brilliant, deep or pale. A large range of colours can be found: from white gold to straw yellow through green water for white wines, from clear peony to apricot for rosé wine, from purple to brown red through red rubis for red wines.

Smell 

Then, aromas are perceived. More or less intensive, with a more or less long persistence, they give a general impression as regards the degree of openness and maturity of a wine.

Moreover, twelve big families of aromatic nuances are distinguished:

• floral aromas (acacia, violet, hawthorn…),
• fresh fruits (cherry, blackberries, blackcurrant, pear…),
• dried and crystallised fruits (hazelnuts, jam, dried prune…),
• vegetable aromas (grass, tea, tabacco, mint…),
• underwood's aromas (fungi, moss, truffles…),
• animal aromas (leather, fur, musk…),
• food aromas (honey, liquorice…),
• empyreumatic aromas (coffee, powder, toast…),
• balsamic aromas (thyme, cedar, pine resins…),
• woody aromas (wet or green wood, new barrel…),
• spicy and herbs aromas (vanilla, cinnamon, pepper…)
• and mineral aromas ( gun flint, sea iodine…).

Taste

Finally, when the symphony of flavours develops to its peak, the wine caresses the palate and awakens the taste buds. Powerful, round, structured, balanced, supple, or sour, it may linger in the mouth or may be a bit short.