STEP ONE:
LOOK DEEP INTO THE GLASS
Fill your glass one-third with wine, then hold it on an angle against a white backdrop. The white backdrop helps you to best examine the wine’s colour. You’re looking for the wine to be clear and to reflect light well.
Wine shifts in colour as it ages. A good rule of thumb is this: red wines begin life with a purple hue, moving along the spectrum to ruby, garnet and finally brick red when they’re fully mature. White wines vary in colour over time as well. They range from almost water white, to pale straw, and could be a deep golden yellow. Warning! If you notice brown tinges in white wine, it has oxidized (over-exposed to air). It may not be suitable for drinking.
STEP TWO:
FOLLOW YOUR NOSE
With your fingers on the stem of your glass, gently swirl the wine. As you do this, the wine’s bouquet or aroma is released. Put your nose to the open area of the glass and inhale deeply. You’re trying to identify the aroma of things in the context of something you already know, like the scent of a type of fruit or flower.
Smelling is the most important step in the wine tasting process. Your nose can detect between as many as 5000 separate fragrances, odours and aromas. Your nose is the sense most closely linked with memory. As you become more experienced with tasting, you should be able to associate a wine with different scents you already know.
You may notice these characteristics in some popular wines:
STEP THREE:
TEMPT YOUR PALATE
Draw your glass to your mouth and drink a little of the wine. As you do, breathe in through your mouth, and swish the wine around to capture its flavour. Your mouth confirms what your nose has already discovered.
While your nose has thousands of different ways to detect something, you only have four taste sensations: sweet, sour, salt and bitter. By swirling and swishing the wine around your mouth, you get the most of the wine’s flavour.
STEP FOUR:
BREATHE TO THE FINISH
Once you swallow the wine (some tasters choose to spit it out), breathe out through your nose. This is the wine’s finish, or aftertaste. Here, the wine comes together to create one last flourish of aroma and flavour.
Move through these steps each time you taste a wine, and be sure to take your time. Wine is meant to be enjoyed. By isolating your senses, you’ll get the most out of what you’re drinking.
