Tasting wine seems like an easy and obvious enough challenge but there are several ‘pointers’ or tips and a specific sequence of approaching a wine that will help you better understand the wine that you are about to drink or purchase.
While people have been enjoying the experience of tasting wine since ancient times, this practice became more formalized during the 14th century. Professional wine tasters use a very strict wine tasting vocabulary in their description of wines, yet recreational wine tasting events are much more informal. All you really need is openness to experience and a willingness to express your first impressions.
Whether professional or recreational, wine tasting is a multi-sensory experience. Although not formally considered part of wine tasting, even hearing is involved in the process, beginning with the distinctive sounds of the bottle being open and the wine being poured into its glass. The other senses are involved in a more direct way. Here are some tips for involving your senses to the fullest when tasting wine:
Sight: Using a clear glass, and holding it up to a white background will help you to enjoy a wine's true color. Tilt the wine in the glass slightly and take a good look. Depending on the type of wine in your glass, you may see deep reddish brown, bright ruby red or warm gold. Color can give you a clue about a wine's age. White wines usually gain color as they age while older red wines lose color.
Smell: If you use a glass with a rim that bends inwards, it will help you to enjoy the complex scent of a wine. Swirling the wine around in the glass coats its sides and allows you to experience the full fragrance. Scents actually vary from the top to the bottom of the glass. Lighter floral and fruity scents rise to the top while deeper, richer aromas can be found toward the bottom. Also referred to as the ‘nose’, the aroma of a wine is one of the most important aspect of wine tasting. There are Wine Aroma Kits that are often used to help train your sense of smell.
Taste: To fully experience the taste of a wine, swirl a little bit of it in your mouth to cover all your taste buds. Take a moment to enjoy the flavor before either swallowing or spitting out the wine. In addition to the initial taste, you will find there is also an aftertaste to the wine, usually referred to as the finish. Sucking or drawing in air over a mouthful of wine is the best way to fully appreciate the ‘taste of the wine, as this allows you to use your nose and olfactory senses to further define the taste.
Touch: When the wine is in your mouth, it provides a tactile experience, often referred to as "mouthfeel," in addition to the taste. Some wines feel refreshing on the tongue while others might feel velvety, flat or even prickly. The prickliness comes from tannins which are used in red wine to keep it fresh. The younger the red wine, the higher the tannin content and more prickly the feel.
If at first this process of tasting seems tedious and perhaps even affected, if repeated every time you hold a glass of wine, they will become an integral part of your wine experience and help you to hone your own ability to clearly differentiate the various grape varieties and types of wine.
We have also included here a video by Oz Clarke, renowned wine writer from the UK, who manages to infuse wine knowledge with a sense of humor.