There’s more to tasting wine that just gulping it down glass by glass. Wine tasting involves all of the senses, most importantly, sight, smell and taste. Arm yourself with pen and paper for note-taking and dive in!
Look
Fill about a quarter of the wine glass and take a good look at it. Hold it up, preferably against a white background, and decide about the intensity of the colour. Look for cloudiness and sediment (or sometimes bits of cork).
Different colours can mean different things. If one wine is slightly darker than another, it’s usually because it’s older and has more flavour. A white wine that looks brown has probably gone bad. On the other hand, some red wines improve with age, and the darker or more opaque, the better. Another good technique is swilling because it helps release the essence of the wine for the next stage, smelling.
Smell
The smell of the wine is also known as the bouquet or the nose. Try and identify as many as you can. Does it smell fruity and fresh, or heavy and wooded? Does it remind you of cucumbers and white bread or dark chocolate and berries? Write it all down. It definitely become easier the more you do it. If you think a wine smells like flowers or grass after a rainy day, then note it down. You’d be surprised how accurate you can be.
Taste
When tasting, take careful note of the levels of sweetness, acidity and alcohol in the wine. For each of these, ask yourself whether the amounts are appropriate for that particular type of wine. Decide whether the taste of the wine is sweet or bitter. Next, note its acidity. Acid is important because it gives wine that crispness, but too much will make it sharp and unpleasant, and too little will leave it flat and without character. Finally, take note of the alcohol and tannin in the wine. While tasting, think about the kind of food you’d enjoy with the wine.
Visit these boutique wineries to grow your knowledge of boutique wine and boutique wineries:
