How to Taste Wine - A Complete Guide

• There are three main components of wine tasting, visuals, smell and taste.
• Good glass is essential to the tasting process.
• Whether you're swallowing or spitting, it's a great idea to make notes about how the wine taste, looks and smells.

Why taste Wine?

Primarily tastings are about enjoying a range of wines and discovering what you like and dislike. Wine tasting will help you identify flavours and aromas that you are particularly fond of, and thus ordering in a restaurant or bar will be easier from thereon. A thorough understanding and ability to taste wine take several years to master, but having a basic understanding will put you in good stead.

Wine tasting can be a social activity. Small and large tasting events are often held regularly (weekly, monthly); this can be from an official tasting club to a small group of friends at the local pub. Wine merchants and shops often hold annual open tastings to identify how well a certain vintage or producer will sell and receive detailed feedback from customers.

Themed tasting events generally showcase a range of wines based on one theme, such as a wine or grape variety. These wines can sometimes be served alongside food that compliments the flavours, for example, cheese and canapés to accompany an Italian bottle.

Tutored tastings are available for people who want to know more about wine and be taught the origins/history of wine and how to taste it within an educational framework. These tutored sessions often include comparable tastings to highlight the differences between similar wines.

The WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust) offers numerous qualification grades for both professionals or enthusiastic wine amateurs; WSET school courses or online classrooms are available. WSET school courses are provided all over the country.

How do you taste wine without being an expert?

Wineware has produced a complete guide to wine tasting. This guide is simple to follow, and you will learn exactly how to tackle wine tasting. It has been divided into individual, manageable sections, including tasting conditions, what you need if you are hosting a tasting evening and the three main components of tasting- visuals, smell and taste. This informational guide is intended to make tasting easier to understand and not seem so daunting. Wine tasting is meant to be a fun and enjoyable activity.

This guide is suitable for all levels of knowledge, from amateurs who want to learn ‘the art of wine tasting’ to critics who need a wine tasting recap.

Wine tasting conditions

Whether you are hosting or attending a tasting evening, the environment is crucial to the experience. The best conditions for a wine tasting situation are:

• A quiet room that is free from large crowds and noise. Distractions can impact tasting; for example, noise may affect your ability to identify particular aromas clearly.
• A room that does not contain too many distinctive or overpowering smells (odour-free). ‘Neutral air’ is desirable, although nearly impossible to achieve. Strong smells can linger in a room and interfere with the wine tasting.
• You will need good lighting within your chosen room so that you can record visual observations accurately and correctly.

The wine used for the tasting experience must be served at the correct temperature and offered in the appropriate glassware. ‘Conditioning the glass’ is sometimes required- which is rinsing a glass with wine (not water) if it seems musty.

Wine tasting essentials 

If you are attending your first tasting, you may be unsure about what to take with you. The glassware, bottles of wines and spittoon are usually always provided at these events.

A couple of pens and a notebook are useful to take along with you, as then you can jot down any notes about what you taste. Tasting checklists might be provided at your event; however, enquire before attending if you are unsure. Alternatively, you can buy these online and in-store from wine shops and merchants. A checklist can act as a useful prompt to help with your observations. Wine key term books and dictionaries are also useful for describing wines and are fairly inexpensive purchases. There are also plenty of key wine term resources available online.

 

Blind tasting events will completely cover the bottles and often use black wine glasses, which completely stop you from telling the colour of the wine before nosing and tasting.

Three main components of wine tasting

Visuals, Smell and Taste 

You will often be offered edible refreshments between tasting different wines; this is to neutralise your palate to ensure accurate tastings. This could typically be a cream cracker or a piece of bread.

Every tasting is different, and be sure to find out the protocol for tasting the wine. Some tasting events have spittoons, where you spit after you have had a chance to note its flavour and characteristics.

Remember, no matter how carefully you spit, you will be absorbing the alcohol through your nose, your throat and your sinus. You should spit the wine accurately into the spittoon through pursed lips. You can always practise at home, before the tasting, if you are unsure how to do this.

Whereas other tasting sessions will encourage you to swallow a mouthful of wine and record your observations. Glasses will usually be filled about a third of the way to the top. Too much wine in a glass will stop you from being able to swirl and smell it properly.

Visuals 

We study the appearance of wine to identify any faults, such as; it has been badly stored or the cork seal has completely failed.

The lighting of a room really does have an impact on your tasting. The environment is crucial, natural light is preferred, and white backdrops (tablecloths, walls, pieces of paper) are ideal.

There are four main ways you can view your glass. It is advisable on each of these to hold your glass against the white backdrop. This will enable you to record the colour and intensity as accurately as possible. The four eye-level observations are:

 

 

Hold your glass in these four positions and record all of your observations. Remember to consider these basic questions throughout. What colour is the wine? For most red wines, orange, amber and brown colours are an indicator of age, whereas purple indicates youth. For white wines, green often indicates youth, whereas orange and brown indicate age. Rosé will appear purply-pink for youth, and orange and brown indicates age. However, it is important to note some wines will change colour more rapidly than others.

Is the glass of wine clear and bright, or is it dark and murky? Try and record the intensity of the colour and opacity as well as the shade of colour. As a general rule of thumb, reds will get lighter with age, and whites will get darker. However, this does not apply to all wines, and some varieties can be totally misleading. Try and use scales when noting down the colour, from clear to medium to intense to dull. These will help to describe what you precisely taste.

Smell (also known as ‘nosing the wine’) 

Our sense of smell is often more powerful than our sense of taste. You must have neutral air when tasting to ensure you are focused solely on the aroma of the wine in your glass.

To get a good impression of your glass of wine, it is advised that you swirl your glass for around 10-12 seconds or five good and quick rotations. Rotating your glass breaks the wine’s surface and releases its natural aromas, and helps to vaporize some of the wine's alcohol.

The most common fault that your sense of smell can discover is cork taint. This can range from stripping the wine of its fresh, fruit smell to adding a damp or musty repulsive smell to the wine.

To fully appreciate all of the aromas, you have to stick your nose down into your glass (literally) and inhale deeply. The smell should be strong enough to immediately reel off some familiar smells, such as fruity and spicy. Remove your nose from the glass for a few seconds and then return. This time try to separate distinctive smells; if it was fruity before, can you smell individual fruits such as blackberries, strawberries or bitter lemons? Naming specific smells produces a more accurate assessment of wine, rather than using words such as 'feminine' or ‘clumsy’.

As a general rule of thumb, younger wines tend to smell more of fruit, while on the other hand, older wines smell more spicy or savoury. This is only a generality and does not apply to all.

The WSET® Systematic Approach to Tasting Wine (Level 2) list written by the Wine Spirit & Education Trust is a useful resource for identifying aroma and flavour characteristics at your tasting.

Taste 

Recording the taste is an essential aspect of wine tasting. Unlike your nose, your mouth can recognise texture.

Depending on your tasting event, some people prefer to spit into a spittoon after several seconds, whereas others tend to swallow the mouthful of wine. It is best to clarify at the beginning of your event what the conduct for tasting is; some spit and some don’t. Most professionals will spit, especially if it is a very long tasting. Typically, nearly all social tastings drink.

Many wine checklist sheets help you to record the taste of a wine. Wineware has a downloadable ‘Wine Tasting Notes’ (click here for PDF). It may also be useful to have a list of basic wine terms handy throughout your tasting. Wineware has a downloadable ‘Basic Wine Tasting Terms’ (click here for PDF).

How do I taste wine properly?

This is where the face-pulling fun comes in! To taste properly, you take a small amount in your mouth and swish it around for a few seconds. Here is the interesting part. After swirling the wine, try sucking a little air through your lips, preferably for a few seconds. (Don’t wear anything too nice, in case you end up dribbling). This allows air to get into the wine to release its flavours.

If you are swallowing, try and think about how the wine tastes when it hits different parts of your tongue. There are five main areas of sensitivity on the tongue, including bitter taste, sour taste (acids), salt, sweetness and finally, tannin; tannin is mainly detected on the gums. A wine’s taste will linger on your tongue after you have swallowed, so try to record how long this “aftertaste” lasts.

The taste may often be described similarly to your ‘smell’ observation. However, remember your taste palate can identify the texture and body of a wine.

The texture of a wine

When you first taste the wine, you can taste the texture; this includes the acid (natural preservatives found in wine), the tannin (natural antioxidant), alcohol content and the body.

The acid

The sides of your tongue most strongly detect acidity, and it is what causes the mouth to water. Acid is what makes a wine taste so refreshing and vibrant. Acidity is vital for sweet wines as if it is too low, a wine can taste oversweet.

The tannin

Tannin is present in grape skins and is a bitter flavour, most strongly detected by the back of your tongue. The astringency from the tannin is what causes the dry feeling in your mouth. The astringent sensation is felt most strongly on your gums. Ripe tannin contributes to the viscosity of a wine.

Alcohol content 

The alcohol content of a wine is basically the quantity of ethyl alcohol in a wine. You will taste the content; typically, wine with a low alcohol content will taste sweeter.

The body 

The body describes the weight of the wine; for instance, is it light or heavy, soft or firm, sweet or dry?

The flavour profile of your wine

This is where you can jot down the exact tastes. You may have previously described it as fruity, but now you can note the sweet plum and berry taste on your tongue. Try and describe the exact flavour instead of generalities that were perhaps recorded previously by your ‘smell’ observation. Is it honey or butter, herbs or earthiness you can taste?

Length (aftertaste of your wine)

It is important to record how long the flavour lasts after swallowing, known as the ‘finish’. This can often relate to the body of the wine. The main descriptions of the body of wine are:

• Light-bodied – like water consistency
• Medium-bodied – similar weight to milk
• Full-bodied - rich consistency like cream

Basic wine questions to answer on taste

• Did you enjoy it? If not, try to articulate exactly what you didn’t like, for instance, the particular flavour or the dry taste on the side of your tongue.
• What food (meal or snacks) can you imagine this wine accompanying? If you have found a nice wine, try to think about what food would match/accompany this drink.
• Would you buy it?
• Would you recommend it to a friend or family member?

If you enjoyed the wine and rated it highly (in visual, smell and taste), make sure you write down clearly the wine’s name, producer and the year it was produced (vintage). If you have a wine app, scan the bottle.

Will you try or host your own wine tasting?

Wineware hope we have encouraged you to give tasting a go! Wine tasting is a fantastic opportunity to improve your knowledge and whether it is a social activity or a qualification you are undertaking, remember to have fun. When it comes down to it, tasting is an individual experience, as you are finding out what tickles and tantalises your taste buds. Remember, we all have individual tastes and preferences. Have fun trying new varieties and try to be open-minded; this way, you will discover a whole new world of wines (literally).

If you require any further advice or guidance on wine tasting, please do not hesitate to contact Wineware.