How to "Properly" Taste Wine
Here are the 4 basic wine tasting methods that are used by the "pro's". These simple steps will help refine your palate and sharpen your ability to recall wines.Easy to understand and great for helping developing or improving upon one's wine palate.
Getting Started
Start with a clear wine glass. The rim of the glass should bend inwards to help funnel aromas to the nose, and allow you to swirl without spilling.
Now on to the FUN!
1. ) Holding a wine glass:
There is a right way and a wrong way to hold a wine glass, and it does make a difference. Never hold the glass by its bowl, only by its stem since the heat of your hand will quickly warm the liquid.
If you are tasting several wines, begin with the lightest white wines first and progress to the heaviest red wines. This will help keep your taste buds more sensitive so you can better appreciate each wine in the series. A sip of water between wines can also help preserve your palate.
Now pour a little wine into your glass - an inch or less is best.
2A.) Sight
Look at the wine - in daylight if possible.
Check out the color, opacity and viscosity (wine legs). You don’t really need to spend more than 5 seconds on this step.
The best way is to slightly tilt the wine in the glass and hold it up to the light or look at it against a white or pale background. What do you see?
Is the wine clear or cloudy? The color will vary according to what type of wine you are tasting.
Red Wines: Red wines vary greatly in color.
A young red wine is typically a bright-raspberry color. You will see hints of reddish-brown around the edges.
An older red wine might be mahogany to brick-like in color.
As a red wine ages, the red wine tends to have a brick-like color. Some dessert wines and especially those that have been in oak barrels, tend to be golden.
White Wines: White wines range from pale green to yellow to deep golden brown and become more golden as they age.
2B.) The Swirl
While firmly holding the stem of the wine glass, gently swirl the glass in tiny circles on a flat surface for about 10 seconds allowing oxygen to penetrate the wine.
The purpose of swirling wine in a glass is to aerate the wine and release vapors, evaporating from the sides of the glass, for you to smell. As the wine coats the sides of the glass, it releases its bouquet.
Observe the streaks of wine (legs) as they roll down the side of the glass. The legs can help you determine the body of the wine.
3. The Smell
Tip the glass up and stick your nose in it and inhale. Some tasters claim that you can get more aroma by holding your nose an inch or so above the glass after swirling. They think you catch more than you would if you put your nose all the way into the glass. Try both ways to see what works for you. Also, your nose tires very quickly. Even “off-smells” may not register after a number of sniffs.
Did you know that 80% of our sense of taste is actually in our nose? The aromas can be quite different depending on how far into the glass your nose goes. What do you smell? There is no proper sniffing technique. Some wine connoisseurs prefer to sniff by quickly inhaling two or three times. Others prefer one deep sniff or smelling with one nostril at a time.
At the top of the glass, the smells are more floral and fruity; deeper in the glass, they are richer. Try to detect the full range of scents from berry to floral to spicy to woody ... and so on. Consider intensity and appeal.
Pick out at least 2 flavors and take your time identifying them. There are 3 types of wine aromas:
Primary Aromas- come from grapes and include fruit, herb and flower notes.
Secondary Aromas- come from fermentation and yeast aromas.
Tertiary Bouquets- come from aging, oxidation and oak such as baking spices, nutty aromas and vanilla.
4.) The Taste
This is the final step and should be taken only after you've used your other senses. Then sip the wine, letting the wine spread across the tongue from front to back and side to side before swallowing.
If you feel comfortable doing so, carefully slurp some air through puckered lips. This slurping of air (aerating) will help to release flavor and aromas. Assessing the wine by taste should confirm the conclusions drawn from the appearance assessment and the smell assessment.
- The tip of the tongue detects sweetness
- The inner sides of the tongue detect sourness and/or acidity
- The outer sides of the tongue detect saltiness
At this point you can either spit it out (especially if you are tasting several wines) or simply drink it, but be sure to experience the aftertaste (the finish). Professional wine tasters will not swallow the wine, but immediately spit it out (you will see buckets for this purpose).