Wine Tasting Like a Pro
By Kelly Harvey, Signature Wines LLC
 
Published On:  1/24/2010

Tasting wine is the process of using your senses to appraise and describe wine. Tasting wine can be broken into 3 simple categories- sight, smell, and taste.  

Although the first category, sight does not play a direct role in assessing flavor, the visual appearance of wine is an important part of the sensory evaluation. Hold the wine glass by the stem and tilt the glass at a 45 degree angle. Ask yourself: What color is the wine? What is the shade of the color? What is the depth or intensity of the color? Is the color appropriate for the type of wine? Is the wine brilliant, clear, transparent, dull, opaque, or cloudy?

Swirl the wine glass. As the swirl settles, notice the extent to which the wine sticks to the side of the glass. This is known as the wine's "legs." The legs indicate the body of the wine, whether it is light-bodied, medium bodied, or full-bodied. Light bodied wines will typically not leave many legs, whereas a full bodied wine will leave obvious legs.  

The second category is smell. When you stop swirling, and the legs are falling, smell the wine.

Your tongue can only taste four flavors – sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. All the other things you think of as "flavors" come from your nose. The number of smells humans can identify range up to 10,000! Although we use the term “taste,” it is the combination of our nose and tongue that sends a signal to the brain.

When you inhale try to inhale as many molecules as possible. There is no proper sniffing technique, just try to get a good sniff in. Try to isolate and identify the different aromas present and describe the smell. How we describe a wine’s aroma is usually based on comparisons to aromas we have smelled before like black pepper, raspberries, or vanilla.

The third category is taste.

Taste is actually very simple when compared to smell. Taste is broken down into two main categories. 1) The i nitial taste is the first impression of the wine. 2) T he wine's finish is how long the flavor lasts after it is swallowed.

Take a sip of the wine and roll the wine all around your mouth, bringing it into contact with every part of your tongue. Try to keep it in your mouth for 10 to 15 seconds. The different taste sensations to examine are the degree of sweetness, the acidity or how sharp and crisp the wine is, the fruitiness, the body or the weight and fullness on the palate, and the a stringency or the drying or “puckery” sensation.

Don't forget the finish. After swallowing, exhale gently and slowly through your nose and mouth. The better the wine, the more complex, and long-lasting these residual tastes can be. A wine that pleasantly lingers on your palate for 20 to 30 seconds after you swallow is usually considered to be outstanding.

Hopefully you now have a better understanding of wine tasting basics. Your friends will be impressed and your wine confidence will be sky high.

Kelly Harvey is the owner and wine maker at Signature Wines in Columbus.