How to Taste Wine
When you first start getting into wine as a hobby, it can be pretty intimidating trying to figure out how to do everything the right way. It seems like everyone else knows exactly what they’re doing when it comes to choosing wine, tasting wine, and everything else that comes along with those tasty little grapes. But don’t worry, everyone has to start somewhere, and truth be told, everyone else is probably faking it too! So, when it comes to tasting wine properly, where do you begin?
Wine is meant to engage the senses. How each wine looks, smells, and tastes is all a part of the wine experience. The deep colors, rich aromas, and complex tastes of each bottle of wine should be fully enjoyed by the senses. You’ll first want to make sure that you have the proper glassware for the job. Choose a thin, clear, large-bowled glass with a footed stem and no lip on the mouth. Fill the glass about one-third to one-half full and observe everything that makes the wine unique.
You should first take note of the wine’s color and depth. Hold the glass up and tip it to a 45-degree angle. You might want to hold it up against a white background, like a napkin, so you can see the wine’s colors more accurately. The wine should appear clean and not cloudy. Consider the wine’s color. Is it light or dark, transparent or opaque, red or brown, yellow or golden? These observations can tell you a lot about the wine. If a red wine is more transparent, it is considered light-bodied. A red wine that is darker or more opaque is considered full-bodied. Younger red wines can look more purplish and tend to turn brown as they age. Young white wines can start out with pale yellow tones and then deepen to a darker gold color as they age. You can truly see the beauty in each wine if you understand what it is showing you in the glass.
Next, swirl the wine inside the glass, being careful not to spill it on the table! Swirling the wine awakens it and causes the molecules to break apart and releases the many aromas inside. Smelling the wine is important because it enhances your ability to taste things completely. If you can’t smell the aromas of the wine, you won’t be able to fully taste the flavors. Raise the glass and stick your nose right into it and breathe deeply. Don’t be shy, everyone else will think you know what you’re doing! There are so many different aromas that you might encounter in a single glass of wine that it would be impossible to list them all here. However, you might find a mixture of fruits, woods, herbs, flowers, butters, tobaccos, spices, nuts, pencil shavings (no kidding), toffees, peppers, chocolates, or any number of other aromas. There are some things you don’t want to smell because they indicate that a wine has gone bad, such as mushrooms, dirty socks, rotten eggs, or vinegar.
Now, you can finally taste the wine. Take a small sip of wine and move it around your entire mouth. You want to coat your mouth with the flavors of the wine so you can really taste them. Open your mouth slightly and breathe in to release the aromas into the back of your nasal passages. The main things you’re looking for in the wine are sweetness, acidity, fruitiness, tannin, and alcohol. Different wines will show different levels of these taste aspects and can determine if a wine is sweet, bitter, sour, tannic, light-bodied, or full-bodied. The more you understand about these flavors, the more you’ll understand about wine.
Finally, you can swallow or spit out the wine. You want to pay attention to how long the flavors of the wine last in your mouth. This is called the finish or the aftertaste. Did the taste stay in your mouth for a long time or did it fade away quickly? A wine that remains in your mouth longer is usually thought to be a better wine. The final thing to consider is whether or not you liked the wine. This is probably the most important factor because you can look at, smell, and taste wines all day, but if you don’t like them in the end, why bother?
While this may seem like a complicated way to get through a glass of wine, it really does teach you a lot about what wine is all about. Wine is an experience and a journey and should be studied and appreciated if you really want to learn about what makes wine so interesting. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with just enjoying a fine wine without all the scientific analysis, but at least now you know how to do so with the best of them.
