Palate
Definition - What does Palate mean?
In the context of wine tasting, palate refers to the ability to identify and taste different characteristics of wine. Wine drinkers and wine tasters develop their palate by using visual assessment, smelling the wine and tasting the wine. Developing a wine tasting palate can be done through practice and by tasting different wines.
WineFrog explains Palate
Wine tasters can develop their ability to discern aromas and tastes in wine by using sight, smell and taste. While the end goal is to be able to taste subtle flavors in wine, your wine palate is a multi-sensory experience. When you visually inspect a wine, you can immediately recognize the color of the wine and by judging the shade of the color, and make an assessment about the mouthfeel. Deep, dark-colored wines tend to have fuller bodies as opposed to lighter colored wines.
Developing the ability to recognize different aromas assists in palate development more than any other sense, as humans can recognize more scents than they can taste. When you smell the wine, you can determine aromas and prepare your taste buds for different flavor profiles. When the wine in is your mouth, your taste buds will easily recognize the main tastes of sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami.
