Wine Tasting Tips- the m-sxl wine guide
Whether you are completely new to wine or have been drinking it for years, it is important to be able to understand the process of tasting wine correctly. This will allow you to break the wine down into its component parts and ellucidate more about the wine's origins and its future potential. In this m-sxl guide to wine tasting we present top wine tasting tips, tasting techniques and terms. We teach you how smelling and tasting correctly can truely enhance your enjoyment of wine.
Whole books have been written on this single subject alone but we will focus on the basics.
Note wine tasting can be a complex art but in essence there are four key areas of wine tasting:
- Colour
- Smell
- Taste
- Finish
1. Colour
Pour a small amount of wine into your glass. Hold the glass up to the light at an angle and note the colour of the wine, its opacity and how the colour changes as it approaches the edges of the glass. Most white wines will tend to become clear towards the rim. The colour of red wines at the edge is a good indication of their age. Older reds will exhibit an orange brick like colour at the edge. If the wines is cloudy this may indicate a fault.
2. Smell
The smell or 'nose' of a wine can yield a large amount of information about the wine, how it was made and how it may end up tasting. Aerate the wine by slowly swirling it around the glass. Then take a deep sniff. Note down any flavours you may encounter.
It can be useful to break down smells into two categories: fruit and non-fruit smells. At first with some wines the main smell may be predominantly fruit driven, however with time this may evolve into some non fruit 'secondary' characteristics. Try to avoid using terms such as 'sweet' when describing a wines nose. Sugar for example does not smell sweet.
3. Taste
Take a small mouthful of wine and roll it around the mouth to contact all the taste buds around the tongue. Again note down initial impressions of any fruit flavours and secondary characteristics. However also note down how acidic or tart the wine feels in the mouth and for red wines how much 'tannin' there is in the wine. A wine with high tannins will make you teeth feel furry and dry against your lip. High tannin may be a sign of good ageing potential as it supports the wines structure during the ageing process. The most important thing to note in the wines taste is its balance. The hallmark of all good wines is balance. If one particular tasting facet (such as acid) is much higher than the rest then the wine will struggle to age well. The exception to this is high quality wines designed for ageing such as the red wines from Bordeaux or the Rhone. These wines can taste extremely out of balance when young as the tannin content may be very high, however 20-30 years after bottling, the wine can be perfectly in balance.
4. Finish
Swallow the mouthful of wine and try and note the sensation of the finish. What we are looking for here is a long lingering finish that is not dominated by any one part of the wine. Count in seconds the amount of time it takes for the flavour to disappear compleletly. Note how alcoholic the finish is and whether this upsets the balance of the flavours. High quality wines will have a long finish based on the wines flavour, not acidic or alcoholic.
And that, in a nutshell, is the basics of wine tasting. Whenever you open a bottle of wine follow this four step plan with the first glass and note your findings either on paper or mentally. Over time you will build up a 'feel' for different types of wine and what to expect when ordering wines in restuarants and bars. Enjoy!
