Wine tasting doesn’t need to be a traumatic experience, even if you are new to the wine world and have limited wine knowledge. You may feel that you cannot attend a wine tasting however wine tasting is actually not that difficult to begin with; all you need to do is utilize your sense of sight, smell, and taste, and finally use your own intuition and tastes. Then it is all about practice and more tasting of different wines. With a few basic principles you can soon talk about wine and learn more about the wines you taste in a very short period of time. Don’t be concerned about the flowery terms that are often verbalized by wine connoisseurs – wine tasters are well known for colorful descriptions and although such terminology is not a requirement in order to become proficient at wine tasting, with a bit of practice you should be able to follow what they mean by these terms during an actual wine tasting.
The color of a wine can tell you a lot about the individual wine you are tasting; color usually denotes the age of a wine whether it is a red or white wine. The color of a wine can help you learn more about the wine you taste, for instance the type of grape that was used to make the wine or how old the wine is. When drinking red wine look at the shade of red; is it ruby, maroon, brick red, or purple? White wines that may start out a bright yellow will also lose some of that intensity with time. In general red wines start out bright and rich in color and as they age they take on more of a brick tinge and this can be seen clearly around the edge of the wine. This is why some wine tasters tilt the wine glass so that they can better see the hue of the red through light and get a better impression of the wines maturity. With white wine such as chardonnay, the wine starts off brighter and gets a little darker as it ages.
Smelling the wine is probably the most commonly associated part of wine tasting, it is actually an important step in learning about the flavors of the wine. Swirling wine before smelling it during a wine tasting will help to release the natural aromas of the wine. As a wine matures there will be other aromas that can be detected, this is called the bouquet of the wine and it can be very complex. It’s amazing how much of a wine’s flavor can be detected in the aroma, this step will help you taste the wine better. In fact most people don’t realize that when we taste its actually a combination f our tastes buds and our sense of smell working together in synchronization. That’s why it is virtually impossible to taste wine when one suffers from allergies or a cold.
Finally you should taste the wine, take a sip and let the sip roll around your whole mouth so that you can fully taste the wine. As you attend more wine tastings you will be able to pick out specific qualities of a wine that you like or do not like. As time goes on you will be able to move beyond mere flavor of a wine, instead you will be able to detect tannin and alcohol content, different wine making techniques used, whether the winemaker has used barrels for fermentation as well as for aging, whether there has been a secondary fermentation done as well as other characteristics of a wine. Following a few simple steps helps to develop a true sense of what a wine tastes like and will help you to develop a much better understanding of wine.
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