Wine Tasting Is For Everyone

Wine tasting can sometimes be a little daunting, if you have no knowledge about wine you might think that you cannot attend a wine tasting. Wine tasting is actually very simple; all you need to do is utilize your sense of sight, smell, and taste, and finally use your own intuition and tastes. With a few basic guidelines you can soon talk about wine and learn more about the wines you taste in a very short period of time. This will lead to you being able to select wines that you like and that you will enjoy more rather than having hit and miss experiences with your wine selections.

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. Although color may seem secondary to smell and taste, the color of wine can actually tell you a lot about the wine you are drinking. The age and the type of grapes used to make the wine can be discerned from the color of the wine. To be able to clearly tell the color of a wine tilt the glass with a white piece of paper or a white tablecloth behind the glass, you should always use a clear glass during a wine tasting.

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. A young wine will typically smell fruity, more discerning noses will be able to identify the particular fruit such as raspberry, blackcurrant, or plum for example. 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. When you inhale the aroma of a wine look for distinct flavors such as fruitiness, floral accents, and overtones of oak.

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. Note how the wine felt to you on that initial sip, roll the wine around on your tongue and see how the taste of the wine changes. After these initial sips you will start to notice the aftertaste of the wine in your mouth, such as the body of the wine and your overall impression of the wine. Once you have started to attend one or wine tastings you will start to see that you prefer certain types of wines to others.