How To Taste Wine
Step 1: The Visual Appearance
Observe the wine in your hand. Tilt the glass away from you
and observe the colouration. You should see different shades
of colour. With fines wines it is a case of the more the better.
Pay particular attention at the rim where the age of a wine
tends to show. The browner a wine the older it is.
Red wine colours range from deep purple to pale tawny.
White wine colours range from pale greenish yellow to deep
gold.
Step 2: The Bouquet
Your sense of smell is critical to how wine and of course
food tastes. Without the sense of smell things would appear
tasteless. A wine should be appreciated for it's bouquet qualities,
before tasting.
A wine's flavour vapour is given off only on the liquid surface,
therefore the larger the glass the greater the surface area.
Swirl the wine round in the glass to release the vapour. Take
one short sniff and think how the wine smells. Is it a clean
attractive smell? How intense is the smell and what does it
remind you of?
A wine contains thousands of compounds and we have to find
words to describe what we are experiencing. What is best is
to describe a wine by what it reminds us of.
Step 3: The Taste
Now take a mouthful of the wine. There is much discrepancy
about how much wine one should consume whilst tasting, but
in order to appreciate the flavours, you need to ensure that
you allow your palate exposure to the wine. Make sure the
wine covers your tongue. Now think about the wines qualities.
Concentrate on the body of the wine. Compare it to water.
How sweet is it? What is it's acidity? How alcoholic and gassy
is it?
Take a little air into your mouth to allow the vapour into
your nose. Now either spit the wine into a bucket or swallow.
It makes no difference to your evaluation of the wine. Professionals
only spit as they often taste up to 100 wines a day! Think
about how long the flavour remains in your mouth. A good wine
will linger in the mouth whereas a more commercial wine may
leave no trace.
Step 4: The Conclusion
As you conclude it helps to focus on key points:
Colour
How did the wine appear? Describe the colour. You can also
guess the age.
An example might be: Deep crimson with a dull pale rim.
Bouquet
How was the wines bouquet? Use descriptive words associated
with other smells.
An example might be: Oaky bouquet with a hint of elderflowers
Balance
How was the wine balanced in taste? Compare it to water properties.
An example might be: Softly sweet, a hint of crisp acidity,
quite gassy, but not very alchoholic
Length
How long did the wine linger on in your palate?
An example might be: Long and powerful.
