Learning how to taste test wine is as simple as 1 - 2 - 3. The main skill in tasting wine is easy to learn, and anybody can become a good wine taster if they want. Truly "tasting" wine means taking care to study the qualities wine has to offer, which leads to a better appreciation and enjoyment of the wine, and the food you have paired with it.
Three senses unite to make wine tasting a delightful experience: sight, smell and taste. Watch an experienced wine-taster at work and you'll see a relatively casual 3-step process: a glance, a sniff and a sip (#4 could be the Ahhhh! after the sip ritual is completed). This expertise can be easily acquired with a minimum of practice.
Sight or Appearance - Looking can tell you quite a lot about the
wine. Lift your glass up against a white or neutral background in a well lit room to get a general impression of the color. Tilt it away from you until it is almost horizontal to reveal the width and hue of the wine's "rim". Then, with the glass standing on a table, examine the wine from above to see its true clarity, brightness and depth of color.
What you See: The wine should be clear and bright, not hazy. The color should be rich and full. When checking the appearance for degree of color, notice if it is: bright purple (typical of young red wines), ruby and browny-red (typical of aging red wines), or brown and dull (an indication of a wine that is oxidized).
Smell or Nose - The smell of a wine is described in a general sense as its "nose". Smell stimulates the palate as do tastes, and is the most important of our senses for appreciating and enjoying wine. Most of what we "taste" is in fact what we "smell". Just recall how little you were able to taste food or drink when you had a cold or a stuffy nose.
To begin, swirl the glass around gently, holding it by the stem or foot in order to release the "aroma" (forward smells that come from the grape) and "bouquet" (subtle scents that develop as a result of maturing and oak aging). Then sniff the wine, concentrating on the smell, and of what it reminds you.
What you Smell: The nose of a wine will vary in intensity and distinction according to its age, grape variety, origin and quality, but it should always be clean i.e. free of unpleasant odors. There are many words to describe what we smell, however the easiest is to correlate what we smell to that with which we are familiar. For example, you may hear wines described as floral (rose, jasmine, violet), spicy (pepper, licorice), fruity (lemon, cherry, melon) and woody (oak, cedar, vanilla). These correlations will help you express the sensations your nose experiences.
Taste - Tasting is the only way to build real knowledge of wine. Experiencing the taste of bitter, sweet or salt is relative to which part of the tongue is exposed to food or drink. Therefore, take a sip of the wine and instead of swallowing it straight down, work it around your mouth for several seconds (this is called "chewing"). Notice how much more of its flavor you can taste. With the next sip, in addition to chewing it, purse your lips and suck a little air through the wine a few times before swallowing. Notice how you can taste/smell even more of the wine this way because you have deliberately released its aroma and bouquet. "Chewing" and "aerating" for several seconds help to get the most out of any wine you taste. And then there's the "Finish" - the taste that's left in your mouth after the swallowing - the longer the finish, the better the wine.
