Wine Tasting Tips and Tricks

How to Taste Wine - An Introduction

It's amazing how many aromas there are to be found in a glass of wine. Follow our simple guide to maximize your enjoyment of wine. When we are tasting, which sense are we using? Our sense of smell - capable of detecting 10,000+ aromas! Here's a simple technique which will link you in directly to these aromas to get more out of your wine.

Step One - Appearance

• Holding the glass by stem or base will avoid warming your wine or transferring aromas from hand to bowl
• Take a moment to study the wine in the glass - clear and bright? Tilt the wine over a sheet of white paper and notice the core (deepest part) versus rim round edge of wine - if young white wine - a wide watery rim (narrowing with age), if young red wine a pale narrow rim widening with age
• White wine ages darker to tawny brown after many years, red wine loses colour and ages to tawny through garnet and brick-red
• Swirl the glass and watch the droplets - "legs" - indicating alcohol content, the greater the number of legs, the higher the alcohol content, the speed of which these legs fall also tells you if wine is sweet (slow) or dry (fast)

Step Two - Nose

• Aromas of wine may remind us of fruits (grapefruit, apple, peach/black cherry, plum, raspberry), flowers (chamomile, jasmine, rose), spice (vanilla, cinnamon, black pepper), or vegetal aromas (asparagus, mushrooms, freshly-cut grass.)
• Take a moment to swirl again and gently sniff the wine, how can you tell if it's faulty? Cork taint is caused by a chemical resulting from a fungus in the natural bark, and may remind you of damp walls, mildew and mould

Step Three - Palate

• Thinking about the aromas you found, take an initial sip. As far as tasting goes, the tongue detects acidity, bitterness, saltiness, savouriness and sweetness - only 5 things!
• Try a process now to link the taste with your sense of smell - take another sip of wine, and draw air through your mouth as if you are taking a mouthful of spaghetti.
• See how the tasting experience intensifies!
• How long can you taste the wine for? This is the length of the wine - counted in seconds, either short (2-3 seconds), medium (5-6 seconds) or long (10 seconds +), and gives a reasonable level of cost, the longer the taste lasts, the more expensive the wine.

These tips will enable you to order wine with confidence next time you are out, and will certainly impress your friends!

Visitors to the Vinopolis Wine Tour enjoy a 15-minute tutored session, explaining and demonstrating wine- tasting technique. Click here for further details of our latest offers and self guided wine tasting packages.