How To Taste A Wine [Gifographic]

 

 

They say, “Wine is bottled poetry.†Just as you need a refined taste to appreciate poetry, you need a similar taste to appreciate wine. For newbies, this might seem like a daunting task, but trust me, it’s not. If you’re planning a wine tasting for the first time, these tips will help you master the art.

Choose The Right Environment

Wine tasting is an art, and like all things creative, it requires the right setting. If you are in a crowded and noisy area, your wine tasting experience might be disrupted. Given that you aren’t a seasoned mariner in this space, we recommend that you choose a quiet space.

Examine The Wine By Looking

The look of your wine is as important as its feel. It is recommended that you to examine your wine closely under neutral light. Make sure that your glass is one-third filled with wine. This will help you gauge the complete range of its colors and depth.

What You Should Look For

For an effective wine tasting experience, you need to examine your wine well. You might be wondering what exactly you need to be looking for. Specifically, examine its color, opacity, and viscosity.

Feel free to swirl the wine in the glass. This will help you get a feel of the attributes of your wine. The aroma emanating from your wine depends on whether it has aged in a bottle or oak. There might be various different aromas such as autumn leaves, vanilla, roasted nuts, or stale beer.

Examine Your Wine By Tasting

Now comes the moment you have been waiting for all this while. The actual wine tasting bit. Gently take a small sip of your wine and do not swallow it immediately. Instead let it swirl inside your mouth to take in the flavors.

Keep in mind the following aspects of wine tasting while doing so:

1. The Taste

Wines mostly have a sour taste, but they can also range from bitter to sweet and even salty.

2. The Texture

Ethanol adds viscosity to a wine which determines its texture. The texture of a wine will vary depending on its ethanol content. You will be able to make out the difference in texture with your tongue

3. The Length

This refers to the length of time for which the taste of the wine persists in your mouth. This can be a short, moderate or long length of time.

Develop An Idea

You have now gathered information on all the various attributes of your wine. Let them sink in for while. Take your time to analyze all its characteristics such as color, viscosity, opacity, taste, and persistence.

Some More Useful Tips

While examining your wine before tasting, take a while to swirl it in the glass. This causes it to aerate and its aroma to enhance.

Don’t try to taste multiple wines at one go. Instead taste only one at a time. However, taste other wines in the same wine tasting setting, so that you can compare them.

With all the different aromas mingling with one another, your olfactory senses are bound to become inactive in a while. A useful trick is to sniff your forearm. This will neutralize your nose so you can take in newer aromas.

That’s about it. We hope you’re all set to rock your wine tasting experience now. Happy tasting!