How to Swirl Wine for Wine Tasting

Video Transcript

"There are several different ways that you should approach a glass of wine in order to get the overall sense of smell out of the wine. A lot of people just do one long sniff in the bottom of the glass, and they think they've completed the step. Well, that's actually just the first step of wine smelling. Before you smell the wine, of course; you want to swirl it. You can leave it on a table and swirl it; that's perfectly acceptable, and considered polite, or you can hold it by the base and swirl it, or you can hold it by the stem. It really doesn't matter, as long as you swirl the wine. You're releasing its aromatic compounds. The first step in smelling a wine after you've swirled it is to stop, bring the wine up to your nose, put your nose as far down into the glass as it will go; however, don't snort the wine, it hurts really bad, and it puts an ending to the procedures. So, swirl the wine, stop, push your nose in the bottom of the glass as far as it will go, and give a nice deep inhale; very deliberate, for a few seconds. Swirl, stop, sniff. What you should smell in the bottom of the glass is fruitiness. It's not universal, but it's very common that you'll get fruity aromas in the bottom of the glass like that. In a white wine it might be lemon, lime, green apple, apricot, peach, pineapple, mango, papaya. In a red wine it will probably be the berries; blackberry, blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, cranberry, maybe cherry, maybe plum, maybe even a little bit of apple. Where you'll usually get the fruity aromas; swirl your wine, put your nose in the bottom of the glass; don't be embarrassed, breathe in"