SIGHT  

Most wine books and courses say that there are four elements to tasting wine. Sight, smell, taste and overall conclusions. The first element of sight is not necessary! Looking at a wine will add no enjoyment to your tasting experience in any way. Yes it is true that looking at a wine can give some clues to a wine’s condition, identity and age, but in no way will it make the wine taste any better. For those of you who want to learn what to look for there are a number of things that can be observed. Firstly, is the wine clear? If it is cloudy or hazy it should be discarded. Some small bubbles may appear to cling on to the edge of the surface; these are perfectly acceptable in young white wines but not ideal in older red wines. Next, hold on to the stem of the glass and gently swirl the wine round the glass.

Swirling: The aim of swirling is to vaporize the wine and release aromas and flavours within the container of the glass. The shape of the glass is important and should always have a curved top so it can trap the wine within. The act of swirling may take some time to master and can often lead to spills and stains. It’s perhaps best to practice with water or at the very least white wine. Fill your glass to one-third full and place the glass parallel to the ground, and use your wrist to make a subtle, circular motion. The secret is to keep the circular motion to a minimum whilst keeping the glass straight. To start with it might be best to place the glass on a flat surface such as a table but with practice you will soon be able to swirl with the best of them.

Once you’ve swirled the glass watch for the thin sinewy threads that run down the inside of the glass. These are known as a wine’s “legs” or “tears” and are a sign of how the alcohol in the wine affects its overall viscosity or body. If your tears are slow to drop back into the glass it is generally a sign of a higher than average alcohol content and vice-versa if the tears are quick to drop back down the wine is likely have a lower level of alcohol.

Finally, observing the colour of the wine may provide some clues to the wine’s quality and style. White wines can vary in colour from a watery-white to a deep golden hue. Reds can vary from a very light pink to deep, dark and almost black. Rose wines can vary from a very light pink to a deeper orange-pink.

Wines which are dry and light in style and produced in cooler climates are generally the lightest in colour, whilst wines which are heavier in style and produced in warmer climates are generally much darker.

Individual wines will change their colour over time. White wines tend to have a slight hint of green when they are young and may edge towards yellow as they get older, whilst reds appear to have a purple tone when young and move towards brown as they age.

That’s all you need to know about looking at a wine except that it’s best carried out in a room with natural light and with a piece of white paper to hold against the glass when judging its colour.

SMELL  

First of all let’s ask ourselves why it’s worth bothering to smell the wine? The tongue can only detect four different flavours, Sweet, Salt, Sour and Bitter, whilst the nose can detect over 2000 different scents. Amazing isn’t it, but 90% of everything you taste is detected by your nose rather than your tongue. Most people are able to detect over 1000 different scents and the majority of these are everyday odours and scents such as fruit, vanilla, pepper and spice. Once again your new found skill in swirling comes into play here. Take your glass and have a quick sniff inside. Smell anything? If not, try again. But this time give the wine a good swirl. By doing so you’re helping to aerate the wine and release its aromas and flavours. Now smell again for about 5-10 seconds in continuing bursts some long, some short. Now swirl the wine again and continue to smell for another 5-10 seconds - If you are a heavy smoker you may want to alter this procedure to prevent yourself passing out at this point! Besides smoking severely limits your ability to distinguish between different scents and odours.

Whilst smelling the wine notice what you smell. Firstly, does it smell of wine? If it smells musty, like wet cardboard, then it’s probably off. If it smells clean and fresh what else does it smell of? Is it scents of fruits such as citrus, apples, grapefruit, peaches or pears which are common in white wine or is it fruits such as cherries, blackcurrants, raspberries and strawberries as found in red wines?

The next stage is to take note of how pronounced the flavours and aromas are. Are they subtle and subdued or are they strong and in-your-face?

Now that you have had a good sniff we are ready to move onto the most important part - drinking!

TASTE  

Firstly, take a decent sip of the wine but don’t swallow straight away. Instead, swirl the wine around in your mouth for a short while - don’t choke, it does not look good in public! If you want to look good in the company of experts and stupid in the company of friends try drawing some air into your mouth whilst holding the wine in your mouth, again don’t choke! The effect of this will be to aerate the wine and help release flavours. Once you’ve swirled and sucked for 20-30 seconds you can swallow the wine. Spit or Swallow? Some people particularly those who taste wine for a living spit the wine out at this stage and this is advisable if you are tasting a lot of wines. However, if you are only tasting a few wines then swallow away! The spitting out of wine prevents the effects of alcohol from clouding the judgement. However, even those who spit out absorb alcohol, albeit at a much smaller rate.

So what is it we are actually looking for in a wine? The first thing to examine is how the wine feels in your mouth. Does it feel light and delicate or does it feel heavier and fuller? Is it dry or is it sweet? Is it acidic? To detect acidity pass the wine to the front of your mouth and feel for a prickling sensation on the tongue and the gum behind your top-front teeth. It can be quite sharp sometimes but is an essential component in all wines. If it’s a red wine that you are drinking then you should be able to detect some Tannin on the roof of the mouth, the tongue and on the teeth. To understand what Tannin feels like try drinking some cold black tea. If you draw some air in over the wine whilst it’s still in your mouth then you ought to get a better sense of any fruit flavours in the wine. Look to see if the wine tastes of just one flavour or a more subtle and complex mixture of flavours. The amount of alcohol in the wine will play a big part in the overall taste of the wine. Wines with a lot of alcohol will feel fuller in the mouth and may feel hot in the mouth and throat whilst low alcohol wines will feel delicate and light.

Once you have swallowed take a note of what flavours linger and how long they remain in your mouth. This is called the “length” of a wine and is the one true characteristic that can demonstrate a wine’s actual quality. What you should be noticing is whether or not the essential components of the wine still remain in the mouth after the wine has gone and if so for how long, because the longer the time the greater the wine. Overall, what you’re looking for in a good wine is a balance of all of the above with no one characteristic standing out from any other. Balance is what winemakers strive to achieve in their wines. It makes a wine more appealing to be multi-dimensional with all of the parts working together to create a complex array of flavours and textures rather than just a simple alcoholic beverage where one flavour or characteristic dominates.

OVERALL CONCLUSIONS

Whatever wine you have just tasted and whatever characteristics you found in it only one thing really matters - whether you actually liked it or not!

Whether you are a novice or an expert you are still going to make an overall decision based upon personal preferences about the wine’s general appeal.

If you liked the wine the next step to ask yourself is if the wine was worth the money you paid for it? If the answer is yes, then I suggest you order another bottle, or learn from your tasting experience and you will know what to look out for next time you buy a bottle. If it was not worth the money then you know not to buy it again.

If you didn’t like the wine then ask yourself why? Was it too sweet, too dry or too acidic or did it just lack general appeal? Remember, wine appreciation is gained through the experience of tasting not reading! By tasting more wine you will soon gain a greater understanding of where your tastes lie.

So get pouring!