Smelling Wine from the Middle of the Glass

Video Transcript

"I'm going to tell you the third step in smelling a wine now. You may recall, the first step; smell the wine at the bottom of the glass, nice deep inhale; like this. The second step; do the same thing at the top of the glass. Now the third step is the middle of the glass. There are different aromas that come out of the wine in the middle of the glass. They might be earthy, they might be like wet dirt or dry leaves, and if there's anything that's wood derived; either oak, or smoke, or pine, or sap, or a cedar bouquet, it?s probably going to get in the middle of the glass. However, there's also a different smelling technique, and this is very important. Instead of using a nice long inhale in the middle of the glass, you want to use short, quick inhales; like a dog sniffing the air. I know this is a little bit embarrassing, but wine tasting is serious stuff. Swirl the glass, stop swirling it, put your nose in the middle of the glass; as far down as it will go, and use short, quick inhales; like this. Believe it or not, it's called the cocker spaniel sniff, and that's a technical wine tasting term. You may get the woodsy or the earthy aromas that come out of the wine, and you will be amazed at how differently you smell the wine. It's all a different technique of getting the air over your sensory receptors to bring out different scents in the wine. You'll enjoy it; give it a try."