The Basics Of Wine Tasting

Many people think that wine tasting is a difficult thing to master; in fact wine tasting is very easy, like most things in life it simply takes practi...


Many people think that wine tasting is a difficult thing to master; in fact wine tasting is very easy, like most things in life it simply takes practice before you will be able to sip wine and identify its characteristics. When first attending a wine tasting there is no need to know all the terms or the characteristics of what makes a good wine. Reading a little about the terms used in wine tasting and what they mean can help you during a wine tasting but your own tastes will tell you most accurately what wines you like. Don’t be afraid of the jargon that is thrown about by wine connoisseurs, with a little practice you too will be able to do this at a wine tasting.

The color of a wine can tell you a lot at a wine tasting; color usually denotes the age of a wine whether it is a red or white wine. To properly gauge the color of a wine you should tilt the glass away from you against a white backdrop and examine the color from the rim’s edges to the middle of the wine. A rough rule of thumb is that the more bright a red the wine is the younger it is. White wines that may start out a bright yellow will also lose some of that intensity with time.

Smelling the wine is probably the most commonly associated part of wine tasting, it is actually an important step in learning about the flavors of the wine. You will need to sniff the wine more than once, the first whiff you get should be a short one and the next one should be a deeper inhale. As a wine matures there will be other aromas that can be detected, this is called the bouquet of the wine and it can be very complex. It is important to swirl a glass of wine before sniffing it; this increases the surface area of wine that makes contact with air, which in turn increases the aromas being released.

Your first sip of the wine you taste will not reveal all its characteristics; you may taste whether a wine is dry or sweet, light or heavy, or complex. As you attend more wine tastings you will be able to pick out specific qualities of a wine that you like or do not like. Once you have swallowed the wine you should be able to see if there is any aftertaste or what the consistency of the wine felt like. Wine tasting will help you appreciate wine better and make good selections to pair with almost any food.

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