Learn March 20th,2023
Each wine and vintage is uniquely different. Variety and style can drastically influence the colour of the wine, how it tastes and smells. Learn how to properly taste wine and understand why you like the wines you do. This will make it easier for you to always choose wines you’ll enjoy!
Wine tasting can seem intimidating, but once you understand what to look for it becomes much easier, especially with a bit of practice!
Break down the tasting into smaller and more manageable steps. This will allow you to focus on and analyse each part of the wine.
To taste wine properly, find the right environment. Creating an atmosphere that does not interfere with any of your senses will help in your first steps of wine tasting. A noisy or overcrowded room will distract you from the wine. Whilst cooking smells or perfume will interfere with assessing the wine’s aroma.
Also, make sure to serve each wine at the right temperature. All wines should be tasted at room temperature. Chilled wines’ aromas and flavours are hindered. If the wine is served too cold, let it sit at room temperature for one hour.
Consistency when tasting wine is important, so try to always use one type of glass. There are universal wine glasses that can work well for most wine styles. Prep your glass by pouring a tiny bit of wine, swirl it and pour it out. This will remove any smells that may come from soap or storage.
Try to eat neutral foods or cleanse your palate by eating a small amount of bread, unless you are creating a tasting experience based on food and wine combinations.
Looking at the wine is the first real step when undergoing a wine tasting experience. The colour can tell you a lot about the variety and the age of the wine. Learn how to correctly observe wine with these simple steps, which can be applied to any wine:
Tilt your glass at a 45-degree angle. This will help the wine spread out in the glass so it will become more transparent. Tilt your glass towards a white or neutral surface to properly observe the colour.
Look into the glass from above. Most wines should be transparent. A wine may be cloudy if it’s faulty, but some unfiltered wines may be cloudy on purpose. Dark sediments or crystals are not usually related to a wine fault and do not affect the quality of the wine.
Keep the wine at a 45-degree angle and observe the colour against a white surface. Notice the depth of colour, whether it is pale or more opaque. The depth of colour depends on many factors including the grape variety and winemaking techniques.
Then observe the hue. White wines become more brown with age, so brighter colours show a younger wine, while darker colours generally mean that the wine has been aged. Red wines lighten with age as their tannins break down, so a red wine that is more tawny in colour may mean the wine has been aged for at least 5 years. The colour of a red wine is also very dependent on the variety of grape used.
White wines will usually have a pale lemon colour, but if they’re older, or barrel matured, their colour can turn golden. The colour of red wines changes a lot depending on the grape varieties. A Nebbiolo will have a pale garnet colour, while Nero d’Avola will have a dark purple colour.
Swirl your glass. Swirling takes practice, so if you struggle to do it properly, try placing the glass on the table while moving the base. Swirling increases the surface area of the wine and allows oxygen in, both of which help to open up the aromas. Sparkling wines do not need to be swirled, as it will start to flatten the wine.
The wine “legs” are the drips of wine that run down the inside of the glass. Thick, slow-moving legs may indicate a higher alcohol or sugar content, usually accompanied by a fuller mouthfeel. Thinner legs, or no legs at all, suggest a lighter wine. It is important to note that the type of legs are an indication of style, not quality.
Smelling can be the hardest but most rewarding part of tasting wine. At first, identifying different aromas can be hard, but it comes more naturally over time. A wine’s smell gives you clues regarding the variety, the style and the age of the wine.
Take the first sniff while keeping the wine as steady as you can. This way you’ll smell the more delicate aromas, like floral notes. After that, try swirling the glass. Swirling increases the surface of the wine and allows more aromas to become volatile. Therefore, swirling makes smelling the wine easier and gives you the full bouquet of flavours. Write down all the smells you can find. If you struggle, try prompting yourself by thinking of various fruits.
When sniffing a wine, you will want to look for signs of its style and age. Vanilla and sweet spices can mean the wine has been in contact with oak. Young wines generally have fruity smells, while older wines don’t smell very fruity. Instead, they may have smells of leather, forest floor, smoke, nuts, honey, and dried fruit.
Wine faultsEvery now and then you may encounter a wine that you don’t like. Try to get familiar with many styles as well as common wine faults. A wine strongly smelling like acetone, bandaids, rotten egg, vinegar or even having a horse stable smell is clearly faulty.
Identifying the aromas can be hard, especially at the beginning. It takes practice to differentiate all the different smells coming from the glass. At first, wine might just smell like ‘wine’ to you, but don’t get discouraged. Try to keep an aroma wheel by your side when you are going through this exercise. By looking at the aroma clusters listed in a book/app/aroma wheel or the bottle itself, proactively smell the wine and see if you can find them in there.
A tip that the professionals use is to think about a different category of aroma and go from there. Different types of aromas include fruit, spices, herbaceous, nutty, woody, earthy, chemical, microbiological and floral.
There are three main categories of wine aromas:
Primary aromas come from the fruit itself and are detectable right after fermentation. They include fruit and floral aromas, as well as more characteristic aromas unique to certain grape varieties, like spices and herbs.
Secondary aromas come from the winemaking process. These include oak aromas, like vanilla, clove nutmeg and smoke. Some aromas can be a sign of malolactic fermentation, such as brioche, toast and butter.
Tertiary aromas are those that appear after the wine has been aged. They are generally ‘heavier’ aromas. These can be leather, forest floor, smoke, nuts, honey, and dried fruit.
Tip: When tasting wine as a beginner, use familiar and simple flavours to describe aromas, such as lemon, apricot, strawberry, vanilla and honey. Try to stay away from poetic language, unless it comes to you naturally!
Moreover, don’t forget to be specific. For example, write butter and cinnamon, instead of “It smells like my best friend’s kitchen before Christmas”. Use a simple language that both you and anyone you might want to communicate with will understand.
After observing and smelling the wine, the time has finally come to taste it! Take a sip and roll it around in your mouth. If you are tasting many wines, you may choose to use a spittoon: an object made for spitting into, once you have tasted a wine.
When sipping a wine for the first time, you’ll notice if it's harmonious. You wouldn’t want wines that are extremely sweet, very acidic or tasting too much of alcohol. This is the moment when you can make up your mind and see if you really like what you are sipping.
Even if you don’t like it, it’s important to taste it properly to determine exactly what it is you dislike, so you’ll be able to pick wines more suitable to your taste.
Our tongue can detect five structural components: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami. All these flavours can be found in a wine, and they have a distinct feel in our mouth. Try to identify which flavours you are experiencing and how strong they are.
White wines generally have higher acidity than reds, although that is not always the case. Wonderful examples of Italian wines with high acidity are Vermentino (white) and Sangiovese (red). Pick a Recioto di Soave for a white with an excellent sweet flavour. Check out our article on The Five Characteristics of Wine for more information on each of these components.
Tip: Acidity is key in wine because it makes it fresh and easy to drink. However, too much acidity is bad, such as when a wine resembles vinegar.
Our tongue is our primary instrument when detecting the texture & flavours of the wine. Some wines feel very round and smooth, such as a barrel-fermented Chardonnay, while others are very astringent. Tannins are what makes the wine feel astringent. Italy is the proud home of one of the most astringent grapes that exist - Sagrantino!
You can also detect wine flavours by exhaling through your nose right after you swallow it or spit it. This is called recto-nasal smelling and it’s very powerful, since the heat of our mouth often causes some wine aromas to become volatile.
Wine flavours don’t disappear immediately when the sweet nectar has been ingested. They linger in your mouth for some time, and in some cases, for a very long period of time (several minutes in some cases). This can reflect the quality of the wine, but also the varietal, style and age.
Try to keep notes with every wine you drink. They don’t have to be precise and it doesn’t matter if they’re right or wrong. After properly tasting a wine, think about what your overall impression is. Did you like it, and if so, what did you like in particular? Would you want to try the same wine again (maybe in better circumstances or with different foods), or would you rather try a different style next time?
With time, it will become easier to remember exactly how a wine tasted like, even after months from drinking it! This will allow you to compare different wines, find similarities and differences.
With the act of “chewing”, wine experts wash their mouths with wine, properly engaging all their taste buds. Chewing also allows air into a person’s mouth, which helps further develop the wine aromas, even the more volatile ones.
Spinning or swirling the wine glass brings the wine in contact with air. This increases the aroma concentration in the glass, which enhances the wine smell and allows for a much better wine tasting experience.
For beginners, it is recommended to hold the base of the wine glass on a firm surface and move it in a circle. Once you are confident with the technique, you can pick your wine glass up and use your wrist to swirl it in the air. Keeping your elbow still on a surface may help. Be careful not to splash wine on any of your fellow tasters or yourself!
The drips that run down the inside of the glass after the wine is swirled. They give an indication of the level of sugar and alcohol in the wine. Remember: they have nothing to do with the quality of the wine.
This all depends on personal preference rather than an absolute rule. Italian wines vary highly in price and, as a general rule, price tends to reflect the quality of the wine. However, like any other product, things like popularity and market demand may increase the price without justifying the quality.
This heavily depends on the wine and personal taste. Some wines are not suitable for ageing too long, as such a process would negatively affect the flavour and mouthfeel of the wine. Others need ageing to bring out their true potential. If you are considering ageing a bottle of wine at home, check with the winery or the seller to find out if it is a good idea.
The first way to tell is to look at the wine. If it is cloudy, has gone brown or started to make bubbles in a previously non-sparkling wine, then it may have gone bad. Smell it to confirm your suspicions. Scents of vinegar, cabbage, burnt rubber, or garlic may indicate that a wine has gone off. You could taste it to confirm the acidity or mustiness of the wine, but you will probably be able to tell from the aroma. Check out our article on wine faults for more information.
Unveil the intricacies of Italian wine classifications and their influence on wine quality, taste, and authenticity.
Read more
If you’re wondering how you can tell if a bottle of wine has gone bad, we hope this article can answer all your questions and highlight the factors you need to focus on to recognise expired wine.
Read more
You’re only a few simple steps away from storing wine perfectly in your own home!
Read more
Vegan wine is when no animal derived products are used in the winemaking process.
Read more
Properly storing open bottles by protecting from oxidation will extend your enjoyment of the wine.
Read more
