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Step 1
When taking your wine glass, grab it by the stem, not the bowl. Wine is meant to be consumed at certain temperatures. When you hold your glass by the bowl, your hand conveys your 98.6 degrees of body temperature through the glass and onto the wine, warming whatever is there.
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Step 2
Observe the wine for color (you will eventually come to know what color your wine should) and for "legs" on the wine glass. The legs a wine shows after being moved in the glass indicates viscosity.
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Step 3
Swirl the wine. Holding the glass from the stem, gently rotate your hand to create a small hula-hoop action with the glass and the wine. This process "opens" the wine up and releases the wine's aromas. It's also called "volatizing the esters."
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Step 4
Smell the wine. Opinions vary on how vigorously one should do this. If you are at wineries or at formal tastings, you will find some tasters who shove their nose down into the glass, almost reaching the wine itself. You also can easily tip the glass to your face, close enough to your nose to get a good whiff and take in the essence of the liquid.
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Step 5
Sip the wine. The initial taste brings all of the anticipation and pieces of a wine together to provide you as a taster with your overall experience with this wine in your glass. The sip gives you flavor in your mouth to combine with the aromas in your nose. The combination can give you a completely different experience with a wine than if you skip one or more of the steps.
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Step 6
Spit your sip--although this is optional. This is for those who may be tasting several wines during a day or during a short period. If you don't spit in that case, after about four or five wines, your taste buds no longer are in a condition to accurately tell your brain what the wine is portraying. For those who are not tasting many wines, just swallow.
