Wine Tasting Tips

Wine glasses with a tulip shape are nice for two reasons:

1. When you swirl the wine, the aromas you set free are better contained within the glass, and
2. The tapered rim makes it harder to splash wine all over yourself--an occupational hazard with wine tasting. (Incidentally, the "rule" that holding the bowl portion of the glass warms the wine is pure nonsense. The wine won't be in the glass long enough to experience temperature change.)

If you fill your glass about one-third or so of the way, you'll leave plenty room for error in the swirling and tilting departments, and also make space for aromas to build.

A Quick Look-See

Taking a moment to gaze lovingly at the color and depth of your wine is a non-essential but still often worthwhile part of wine tasting. When you look at the wine, sometimes it helps to hold a white sheet of paper behind it to set off the color of the wine. Tilt the glass a little to get a good sense of the wine stretched across a longer plane.

It is fun here to compare a few wines side by side. Some reds are darker than others. You'll notice how inky an Australian Shiraz is compared to an Oregon Pinot Noir. Observe the color of young wines with older wines of the same grape varietal. New reds are often more purple, older reds grow brownish or brick-colored. Some whites are a warm honey color, particularly if they've spent time in oak barrels; others are very light and bright, almost totally clear, or even greenish hued. You might also look to see if the color of the wine is consistent all the way across the surface, or does it lighten at the sides?

Here are a few appearance-related words you might keep in mind:

Bright, dull, clear, dense, hazy, luminous, flat, deep, opaque

Next, give the glass a good swirl. This will help release aromas. A tulip-shaped glass will help capture the aromas and funnel them toward your nose. Go ahead and put your nose right in there. And breathe deeply. The first sniff is usually the most revealing.

Now it's really getting interesting. Smell is, of course, a critical part of taste, and as you get a sense of a wine's aroma it stimulates the palate. But take a moment to tease yourself a bit more before you sip. What do you smell? A wine's aromas can tell you a lot. This is also, however, where the cerebral nonsense of wine tasting can get thoroughly out of hand.

This is where wine tastings can begin to feel intimidating. Some people are more naturally adept at picking out aromas than others. Others are simply bolder about giving voice to their guesses.

Most of us feel lucky if we can pick out more than one aroma. "Mmm, that Chianti smells like cherries!" Identifying underlying flavors often sounds like a poetry reading. But as with most things, with practice (if drinking wine can really be said to require "practice") you can teach your nose and palate to identify more aromas and flavors.

Go ahead, take a sip. Ah, now that's the stuff!  But before you swallow the wine, let it linger a bit in the mouth. At this point, you have many options, some more flamboyant than others. You can tighten the mouth and breathe in over the wine to send the aromas into the back of the nasal cavity--of course, this can also lead to breathing the wine into the wind pipe. (Editor's Note: I have yet to figure out how to look sophisticated while coughing red wine out of my nose.) Or  you can "chew" on the wine a bit to move it around the tongue. However you do it, let the flavors wash over your palate. Enjoy the flavors.

Do you notice that the first flavor sensation remains constant? Or does it change a bit?  Did other flavors move to the forefront? Were the flavors the same as the aromas you picked out?

Do you have a sense of the wine's acidity? Does it make your mouth water?

Is it pleasantly weighty? The alcohol will give it the "body"that is felt in the mouth as viscosity or weight.  (A highly alcoholic wine is often described as "hot.") 

Is there a drying sensation in the mouth? That indicates the presence of tannin. (Note that we perceive tannins and alcohol as feelings, not flavors.)

Use Your Words

Now that you've tasted and have directed your attention to noticing the flavors, language will be helpful. One thing you'll notice is that no one ever says a wine smells or tastes like grapes. Instead, there are many, many other fruits plus vegetables, herbs, spices and minerals that we tend to detect in wine. This is because there are thousands of flavor compounds milling around in that glass that share flavors with other foods.

Part of the fun of identifying flavors in wine is being willing to assign to it words that might seem silly or out of place. It takes courage to say, "I'm smelling rotting leaves in this Burgundy" or "My syrah smells a little like a barnyard" because rotten leaves and barnyard smells don't seem like the kind of aromas you should be experiencing in nice wines. But go ahead and say it loud and proud. As it happens, those are not uncommon aromas to find in those particular wines; neither are they flaws. In the wacky world of wine, they're considered attractive. Go with your instinct. Be daring with the language.

There are classic flavors and aromas to look for:

• Pinot Noir and cherries or mushrooms
• Beaujolais and strawberries
• Merlot and plums
• Shiraz and leather (even barnyard smells)
• Nebbiolo and "roses and tar"
• Sauvignon Blanc and grass (even cat pee!)
• Riesling and petrol (again, in a good way), and so on.

What fruit flavors do you sense? How about vegetables?  Herbs and spices? Do you pick up mineral flavors?

Once you've tasted for a while, you might find yourself taking your aesthetic evaluations to (potentially insufferable) new levels. You can begin to evaluate such things as the wine's "balance." Do the wine's acidity, alcohol, tannins (if they're there) and flavors come together as a pleasurable whole without different parts sticking out unattractively?

As your knowledge and experience expand, you might even get to the point where you feel comfortable talking about the "typicality" of a wine as it relates to its place of origin and style of production: "Yes, this California Sauvignon Blanc is good, though I'm not detecting the tropical fruit flavors that I'd expect in a warm-weather Sauvignon Blanc. And the brisk acidity--it seems more typical of a wine from the Loire." Just don't blame us if your friends suddenly stop inviting you to their wine tastings.

• Something fun to do after you've tasted wine is to pay special attention to the smell of foods as you're cooking. Go ahead and put the mushroom to your nose, give the lemon a sniff, breathe in the aromas of those freshly chopped herbs. The nose has a powerful memory, and taking care to notice aromas in the ingredients you prepare will help you pick out aromas in wines.
  
  
• If your white wines are poured too cold, you will have difficulty picking out aromas until they warm a bit and the tightly bundled odors reveal themselves.