How to Taste wine and identify varietals in a blind tasting (an overview)

Tasting wine for the sake of identification of vintages, varietals and regions is a task that requires a great deal of practice. You will have to train your nose to specifically recognize a variety of smells and your palate to recognize and differentiate a variety of tastes and mouth sensations all vying for your attention simultaneously. You will need background information and knowledge about specific varietals so that you know how to understand and interpret the visual and olfactory components as well as the tastes in each glass. I will produce other articles will deal with specific varietals but this one will serve as a brief introduction to the art of tasting and will provide pointers that will assist you as you improve your knowledge and enjoyment of wine.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Bottle of wine
• A wine glass. Use a small all purpose wine glass for your tastings for the sake of consistency.
• Someplace to keep notes (the included tasting sheet would make an excellent place to keep your notes (see step 2)).

1. Open the wine bottle and pour two to three ounces into your glass.

2. 

   Notice the appearance of what's in your glass.
   
   Conduct you tastings in a well lit room. Holding the glass over a white piece of paper, tip it away from you at an angle. Is it clear or are there little purple flakes floating around in it? Those flakes could be sediment which may be indicative of age. What color is it? Gold to slightly brassy or pink like a Gewurztraminer? Or medium garnet to bright fuchsia around the rim like a Gamay noir?
   
   Speaking of rim variation be sure to notice this element. You'll see it as a change or thinning of color at the edges of where the wine meets the glass. Wines oxidize and turn brown as they age so if the rim is orange or brown it may be safe to say that it had been around for some time. On the other hand if the rim is pink this might suggest that it is youthful.
   
   Last but certainly not least be sure to notice the intensity of the color. If you wiggle your fingers on the other side of the glass can you see the movement?

3. 
   wine legs

   Give the glass a swirl
   
   We do this to make it easier to smell what's going on in the glass but it also gives us a chance to make our last visual assessment and that's viscosity. The more viscous a wine is the higher the alcohol content. Grapes that produce more sugar or hot growing conditions coupled with certain vinification techniques can produce a wine with a high alcohol content. High viscosity wines tend to hang on the sides of a glass after swirled; they also tend to produce thicker legs.

4. Smell your wine
   
   the first question you need to answer when taking your initial whiff is whether or not the juice in your glass is sound. There are a host of faults that could cause off odors in your glass such as moldy, dank cellar or even finger nail polish remover (volatile acidity.
   
   Once you've determined that the wine is sound you should notice and record other observations such as the intensity of the smell as well as what you are smelling. Is it younger and vibrant with more fruity aromas or older and more mature with a bouquet of old leather and cigar box? Are there cedar box or vanilla notes indicative of oak? Any minerality?
   
   I know these questions mean very little right now but as you expand your wine literacy as well as your palate you find that certain varietals have certain characteristic and typical ways in which they are treated in the winery. What you are smelling in the glass is indicative of these techniques as well as specific characteristics of the varietal.

5. Now taste your wine
   
   A wine tasting consists of three distinct phases:
   
   1. The first phase is the initial taste (or first impression): This is where your senses awaken and respond to your to initial sensations.
   
   2. The second phase is the actual taste during which you will make most of your observations: Be sure to slosh the wine around hitting all parts of you tongue (even the side and underneath. Draw in some air. You will now be drawing conclusions about the wine, such as the level of fruit, acidity and tannins. You will be determining its body, the level of alcohol, the presence of residual sugar. The complexities and nuances are mind boggling and are definitely beyond the scope of this article. It will take a lot of practice to get them down. For now its merely important that you understand that each of these aspects relate to something about the grape varietal or something that happened to the juice in the winery. Once you get good at identifying these tell tale signs of viticulture/vinification techniques the actual identification of what you are drinking is merely a process of elimination, or realizing what you are definitely not drinking. Do your best and keep as detailed notes as possible on every wine you try you drink
   
   3. The final phase of the taste is the aftertaste: After you have spit out the wine make note of the taste that remains in your mouth. How long did the finish last? Did you enjoy it?
   
   Blind tasting is an art. If you'd like to get good at it, detailed notes and independent study will be a must. A good start would be to take a look at my other articles related to specific varietals.

Tips & Warnings

• Always spit during a technical tasting. Too much of a buzz will affect the quality of your notes as well as your sense of taste and smell.
• Read my other articles about specific varietals as a starting point for your independent study.

Resources

• ISG - Wine Classes and certifications in your area