How to Taste a Wine

Wine tasting – part 1

This may come as a surprise to you, ’wine tasting’ is not ‘drinking’ wine.
Yes, yes, I know, wine is made to drink and enjoy, but,  there are times when you want to ‘sample a wine’ to see if it suits your palette.
Knowing how to do that, e.g. mastering the art of ‘wine tasting’ is the key to getting the most enjoyment out of choosing and drinking wine.
For those of you that know little about wine, the thought of going to a wine tasting class may seem a little off putting. Most people tend to drink wine with meals so the thought of ‘going to school’ to ‘learn’ may well be a bit off-putting.
The good news is ….. wine tasting lessons aren’t all serious affairs. The basic elements to wine tasting are easy to learn and the result will be that you will learn what wines you enjoy – or dislike – and equally important – why.
Anyone can be a good taster! The less unimpaired sense of smell and taste you have …

Wine tasting – part 2

Use your EYES
Pour a tasting sample into a glass so that it’s no more than one quarter full.
First check the wine is clear (cloudiness or fizzyness usually indicate a fault), and look straight down on it to see how intense the colour is. The deeper the red, the younger wine and or thicker-skinned the grape.
Red wines become more pale with age, white wines deeper.
Tilt the glass away from you against a white background and look at the colour in the middle of the liquid and around the rim.
All wines turn ‘brown’ with age and the rim is the first place where any brick colour is noticable. Young reds are more purplish-blue than brick. Ols reds loose thier colour completely at the rim.
The glossier the colour and the more subtely shaded its differant colour gradations, the better the wine.
Use your NOSE
Take one sniff with all your concentration, then, swirl the wine …Watch Video :

How to Taste Wine Like a Pro

Wine tasting is an interesting conversation subject at parties. While some people are really interested in it and want to learn how to taste wine the proper way, others will simply say 'but I know how to taste wine, I don't need a lesson in it'. In a way it's true, everybody has the knowledge on proper wine tasting, however not everyone actually knows how to apply that knowledge in real life.
Wine tasting is not like drinking water or your favorite juice. There is an art to savoring it in a way that will release its full bouquet in your mouth, making all your taste buds get a unique experience from it. Gulping it down is definitely not the way to go, however I've seen some people do just that during a party. Besides the fact that they wake up the next day with a major headache (aka hangover), they don't get to really enjoy wine the way it's supposed to be enjoyed.
There are really two major components to wine tasting the proper way: drinking it slowly and paying attention to what you are doing, be in then 'here and now' to put it in a Zen way. However before you even get the drink in touch with your tongue, there is another of your senses come into play: your sense of smell. As weird it might sound to some people, smelling it is a major part of actually properly enjoying it.
Another aspect of it is simply looking at the dark liquid in the glass and watching its appearance, the way the light reflects back from the glass, the way the dark red color of the liquid swirls again the crystal clear walls of your glass. Experiencing it this way is a real art.
When you are about to actually taste it, this is how you really go about it: Take a sip and hold it in your mouth without drinking it yet. Draw in a bit of air and let it mix with the wine. Then swish the liquid in your mouth and around it as if you wanted to actually chew it. Finally swallow your drink. You don't need to spend more than a couple of seconds per sip, however this process should really open up your taste buds and give you the many flavors each type has, including a fruity taste, or flowery or earthy or a taste of vanilla. Only a real wine connoisseur can discern all the many aromas of a good year and while it takes some practice, you can get there too and learn how to taste wine the proper way like a pro.
Part of enjoying wine is also letting it breath and get infused by oxygen and this is done through the process of decanting.

by Vaso Johnson