Wine Tasting

You can take wine tasting as seriously as you like. Some people, for example, go on specific wine tasting courses and/or holidays to learn all that they can about the process. Others will simply go to the occasional wine tasting evening or session when they see one advertised locally. And, of course, some people simply prefer to use their wine tasting skills before they enjoy a glass of wine.

There are various important factors when wine tasting which are all connected to some of your senses. These include:

Appearance - the first thing to look at is the appearance of the wine. To do this simply put a little wine in a clean glass and hold the glass at an angle to see how it looks. Key factors here include the clearness of the wine and the colour. For example, a pale white wine will generally be younger than a darker one and red wines darken from almost purplish hues to brown shades as time passes.
Smell - the smell of a wine is known as the nose. To smell a wine you need to gently swirl your glass around to release the bouquet and then take a deep sniff inside the glass. As you get experienced here you will start to recognise the distinctive smells of wines - i.e. you will be able to identify individual fruits and other common wine smells such as grass and smoke.
Taste - the taste of a wine is known as the palate. To taste a wine you need to take a drink and move it all around your mouth to give it maximum exposure. Tasting a wine can help you identify all kinds of issues such as body, acidity, and alcohol and tannin content.

Remember you don't have to spit the wine out now if you don't want to and would prefer to drink it! But, if you will be tasting a few wines then you may prefer to spit it out before moving on to the next one.