How to Become an Expert at Wine Tasting

Member

By Julie McElroy
User-Submitted Article

Article Rating: (8 Ratings)

Wine Pouring

Wine tasting 101: When you attend a wine tasting event, there are steps to take to get the true taste of the wine. These range from four to eight steps.

Here I will discuss six S's of wine tasting: See, Swirl, Smell, Sip, Swish, Swallow (some will say Spit). The important thing is you enjoy the wine!

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Wine Glass
Wine

Step 1

The wine's clarity

See. Hold up the glass to light and look at the color. Is it cloudy or foggy? It may be more difficult with reds, but the colors there should be reddish, not brown or orange.
Step 2

Release the Aromas

Swirl. Take your glass by the stem and give it a gentle swirl. This swirl oxygenates the wine to release the aromas.
Step 3

Smelling the Wine

Smell. The next step is place your nose right into the glass to take a deep whiff. You will catch the wine's released aromas from the swirl. Each wine has its own unique combination of smells. Some common descriptions of the wines bouquet are sweet, smoky, oaky, flowery, citrus-like, or specifics like cherries, grapefruit, or vanilla.
Step 4

Tasting the Wine

Sip. This is the step where you actually get to taste the wine. Start with a small sip and gentle swish it in your mouth.
Step 5

Swish. Swishing the wine in your mouth (like mouthwash) allows full exposure to linger on your taste buds. This will give you a better taste of the wine than if you just quickly swallowed the wine.
Step 6

Swallow. After tasting the wine, you can swallow it. This may not be etiquette in some places and spitting it out may be more proper. However, in many circumstances, the point is to drink the wine and not spit it out.

Comments

patysson said

Flag This Comment

on 8/8/2009 very informative, i love wine.

aarmed said

on 8/8/2009 Super good advice. As you can see I am from the Wine Coutry and my job is about Wine Tours. Now there is some other things that I would like to talk about. If you are getting ready for a wine tasting day, make sure to have a pretty heavy breakfast. Do Not use any perfume. You will kill the smell of the wine and you are not the only person in the tasting room. People don't like to smell your cologne. Do not use lipstick, it mixes with the wine and you can't taste the actual wine. Also the winery staff get pissed off because it's hard to wash the lipstick from the glass. Make sure to drink water as much as you drink wine and have some snaks after each tasting.
That part of "designating a driver" is the best idea. My driver has a video on YouTube where cops had a sobriety check point in Napa. See how people get arrested for drinking and driving.
Also, bring your camera or a camcorder, ...