All wines should be tasted properly, whether it’s a premium bottle or a £4.99 bottle you picked up at the supermarket. Follow our guide to get the most out of your bottle.
1. See
The first thing you do is look at your wine. It’s best to look at it on a white background in order to avoid mistaking the colour. Hold the glass by the stem to avoid warming the wine and smudging the glass. Tilt the glass and you can then really appreciate not just the overall colour of the wine, but whether there’s any change between the centre and the edge. This will tell you about the age of the wine and about the ripeness of the grapes. Essentially, some have a darker colour than others but mainly with red wines it is to do with the grape variety, the ripeness, the age. Having looked at it note what you find; greeny glints mean it’s young; very purply red wines are young; goldy glints mean it’s very ripe or there’s a bit of oak going on, or it’s getting a bit more mature. White wines tend to deepen in colour as it ages, turning from a lemon gold colour to a rich golden amber. Wine shouldn’t be cloudly, if it is it may be corked.
2. Smell
Your sense of smell is much more powerful than your sense of taste, so the most important thing about wine tasting is sniffing it. In order to smell it to the best of your ability, swirl the glass around so the aromas are released into the remainder of the bowl of the glass. Having swirled it around, put your nose in the glass and smell the wine in short sniffs, think about what aromas are coming out of the wine as you do.
3. Sip
You then move on to taste. Humans can only taste four things, sweet and sour, and salt and bitter. In order to taste something in more depth you have to be able to smell it at the same time as tasting it, so ensure you breathe in and out as you’re tasting it. Take a sip, then swill it around so it coats all your taste buds and the sides of your mouth, as well as the roof of your mouth and your tongue.
4. Suck
Once you’ve savoured the taste, hold the sip of wine on top of your tongue; purse your lips as if you’re about to whistle, and breathe in. This has the effect of pulling the air over the wine to the back of your throat, where you can smell it at the same time as tasting. This is when you can discover all the scents and flavours, you will never discover them if you just take a sip and swallow.
5. Spit
If you’re tasting lots of wines make sure you spit it out with lots of power or else you’ll dribble. Tip the remains of the glass into the spittoon and pour the next one.
