You don’t have to be an expert to taste wine, but it can help you understand what you like and dislike, and why. Whether you are organising a tasting for friends, or just enjoying a glass of your favourite wine, our easy guide will give you an introduction to wine-tasting.
Getting started
We all have a sense of smell and taste, but because we use these every day we don’t think about them, and only notice when they're not there. Your nose is the most important element in wine-tasting, as it can tell the difference between hundreds of aromas. Your taste buds detect only 4 basic flavours – sweetness, saltiness, bitterness and acidity.
Use a clean glass for each wine if you can, and one with enough room for you to be able to swirl the wine around the glass without spilling. Only fill the glass to a quarter or third full when tasting.
Look
Hold the glass up and look at the wine. You are checking the colour, that it is not cloudy, and whether it has any bubbles. There are some simple clues – pale whites are normally from cooler climates and are lighter in style, while deeper gold colours indicate oak, or even a sweet wine. Similarly with reds, a deeper colour will indicate that the wine is heavier, richer and probably more alcoholic than a pale one.
Smell
Put your nose in the glass and take a big sniff. Very few wines only smell of grapes, but don’t worry – you are not expected to identify hundreds of obscure aromas immediately. But you will probably notice the obvious ones, such as apple, vanilla, gooseberries or blackcurrants.
Taste
Take a sip, roll the wine around in your mouth so it reaches all your taste buds, and if you can suck in a little air at the same time, this will release more aromas that go up the back of your nasal passage. Swallow or spit out.
Decide
Ask yourself some questions, along the lines of: Is it dry? Is it sweet? Does it make your mouth water? This indicates higher acidity levels. Do you feel a furry dryness? This is tannin, found in red wines. Does it taste OK? Do you like it?
Words
Many words can be used to describe wine – see our glossary of wine terms – and you may find some of them funny or weird, but it is useful to be as specific as you can when describing wine as it helps build up your memory bank of flavours. It is easy to say something smells fruity, but strawberries are completely different in taste, texture and smell to mangoes, although they are both fruits.
Compare
Comparing one wine with another will highlight the differences between them and fix the different tastes in your mind. Write down your impressions as this will focus the mind on the flavours you are tasting.
At the end of the day it is all about enjoyment!