About Tasting Wine

To get the most out of your wine it is vital that one experiences it through all the senses. First, the sight. Then the smell. Then the feel and the taste of it in the mouth. One can even derive pleasure from the sound of the cork popping, the anticipatory splash of the wine in the glass and of course the discussion of the wine's pleasure and merits when you share it.

Since wine is for your pleasure, the question you will ultimately ask yourself is the same for novice or connoisseur: Do I like this wine? If the sight, smell, feel and taste is off-putting, that it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, does it?

To fully appreciate wine there are a few things to understand: the wine's purpose or intent and the degree in which it achieves it. Some wines are made for food, some for aging in the cellar, and some are made to be enjoyed just by themselves. Experience and experimentation will help you determine which is which.

We recommend you write down your impressions in a wine journal, using your own words. This is important for two reasons: you have to dig down inside your memory to relate our past experiences to the beverage before you. Don't worry about winespeak gobbledygook. You only need to communicate to yourself. The second reason is to be able to recall your wine experience later. After tasting hundreds of wines, a journal is useful not only to remind you what you thought of a wine, but how the wine is evolving over time.

Now the fun part: evaluating wine.

Step One: Examine the bottle and the cork.

Does the wine look like it is young, middle aged, old aged or dead? Does the cork come out in one piece or is it crumbling? These things may or may not indicate that the wine is flawed, but it will prepare you for what to expect when you continue.

Is it cloudy, dull looking or brilliant? If it is a red wine, is the color dark or light? Is it purple, ruby, garnet, tinged with brown, or amber? If it is a white wine is it colorless, light straw, deep straw, golden, brown or amber in color? How these wines are supposed to look at their age may take an expert to guide you or you will discover on your own after time. Cloudy wine usually indicates a problem with bacteria or a secondary fermentation. Further evaluation will let you know whether to return the wine or to drink it.

Step Three: Smell the wine.

If it is a varietal (the grape variety is on the label, such as Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay), does it smell correct? If you detect oak, is it dominant or is it balanced with the other characteristics of the variety? If the wine comes from a specific place, does it smell typical of the region? Are there any off odors like sulfur, nail-polish remover, excessive barnyardy smells? Does the high alcohol burn your nose? Is it pleasing? Try to put your impressions in words.

Step Four: Taste the wine.

Judge its body. Is it thin and watery, is it thick and unctuous or somewhere in-between? Experience will teach you whether thin is in or thick is it. How is the flavor? If it has a place-name on the label, does it taste like its place of origin? Does it taste like the grape variety that's on the label? These determine if a wine is "correct." But it should have more. Does the flavor possess character? How high is it on the yummy scale?

Step Five: Judge the wine's balance.

The acidity, fruit, oak, tannin and alcohol should all be in balance or the wine will not age properly nor perform properly at the table. Some people like excessive characteristics like heavy oak flavor, aggressive malolactic (buttermilky) flavors or even the flavors of wine infected by bacteria which give off a barnyard character. Each to his own, of course, but an unbalanced wine will not age well even if it pleases you now.

Step Six: How is the aftertaste?

Is it short, or is it long and lingering? The longer the finish the more satisfying the wine.

Step Seven: What is your general impression?

Is it a wine you'd love to serve tonight for dinner? Is it a wine that needs cellaring to improve it? Is it a wine that gives you pleasure, or is it a wine you don't like or is it something in-between? This is the most important step in appreciating wine

Step Eight: Experience the wine alone and then with food.

Experience the wine you have selected alone first, then with a variety of foods to determine first if it is food friendly and second, which foods it sings with.

Then find another wine and repeat steps one to eight. Don't get too bogged down in the evaluating part. Remember wine is all about pleasure and sharing. It is made for the heart, not the head.