Having drunk wine for a number of years now, I am pretty sure I’m quite good at it. But only in recent years have I truly practiced tasting wine. When drinking wine in the past, I considered two important features: “Yum!” and “Yuck!”. Apparently, there’s more to it than that, so here are the three key steps you need to take when tasting your English wine.
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1. Look!
Hold your wine up against a white/light surface and observe the clarity and colour. Generally, reds fade with age and whites deepen in colour. If it’s a red, can you see through it or is it so deep in colour that you can’t? This could hint at how heavy or light a wine will feel in the mouth. A deep-coloured wine may have stronger tannins. Is it clean or cloudy? If it’s cloudy, beware, it may be bad!
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2. Smell
Give that glass a good swirl to release the aromas and put your nose into the glass. BEWARE! If you have just purchased a 250ml glass down the pub, you may get wine up your nose! This is best practiced with a small amount of wine in a larger glass. See what you can pick out. Fruits? Vegetables? Spices? Baked goods? Is it sweet or savoury? Earthy or floral? The nose is more sensitive than the tongue, so this is the most important part of wine tasting and should not be skipped.
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3. Taste
Take a good sip and swirl it around your mouth. You don’t have to gargle it or slurp it, just make sure it hits every bit of your tongue so you don’t miss any key flavours. Does it taste as expected? Are you picking up on the flavours that you could smell? Are there any new flavours that you’re getting? How does it feel? Is it light or heavy? A lot of people compare the mouthfeel to skimmed vs whole milk. Did it dry your mouth out once you swallowed it, or did it feel like a juicy fruit? Was there an element of both?
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If you are taking notes, be as descriptive as possible and don’t forget to decide most importantly: Do I enjoy this wine? If you are not taking notes, it is still good practice to Look, Smell and Taste when drinking wine so that you begin to build up a picture in your mind of what features different wines have. This way, the next time you see a similar bottle, you will be able to take an educated guess as to how it might taste.
What are your top tasting tips? Send us your tips on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook!
Related
FAQs
There are three main components of wine tasting, visuals, smell and taste. Good glass is essential to the tasting process.
What are the three stages of wine? ›
You need all your senses to taste wines of the Loire Valley, especially the sight, the smell and the taste. Watch the color of the wine, smell and taste it are the three steps of tasting.
What are the three core tastes in wine? ›
Wine has three levels of flavors and aromas that evolve over the course of its life: primary, secondary and tertiary. Younger wines display primary fruit flavors and aromas. These include black, red and dried fruit in red wines.
What are the stages of wine tasting? ›
How to (Properly) Taste Wine
- Step #1 – See. In this step, you are looking at the wine in two very important moments. ...
- Step #2 – Swirl. Absolutely my favorite step! ...
- Step #3 – Smell. The nose is amazing; well trained, it can smell over 2,000 different aromas. ...
- Step #4 – Sip.
One thing's for sure – deepening your understanding of taste is a rewarding journey. If you're just exploring how to truly taste your coffee, it's worth learning these four important steps: smell, slurp, locate, and describe.
How to taste wine like a pro? ›
Take a small sip, not a big gulp, and hold it in your mouth, swirl it around and breath in a little. This oxygenates the wine and opens it up, rather like swirling. Tasting is an extension of smelling. Most of the flavours you get when you taste wine come through your nose as it's connected to the back of your mouth.
How to taste wine like a sommelier? ›
How To Taste Wine Like A True Sommelier
- See: The color of a wine can tell you a lot. ...
- Swirl: If you've seen a winemaker swirl their glass, there's more to it than just having fun (though it is fun). ...
- Sniff: Our sense of taste and smell are directly coordinated, which comes into play when we're smelling wine. ...
- Sip: ...
- Savor:
There are five main things that you need to focus on when tasting wine: sight, smell, swirl, sip, and savour. Each of these steps are important in order to get the most out of your wine-tasting experience.
What does 3 mean in wine? ›
Three is sweet, and six is really, really sweet. Originally, the number referred to the number of puttonyos, or buckets, of sweet botrytis-affected grapes called aszú that were added to a dry wine. The more that were added, the sweeter the final wine would be.
What is the sweetest taste in wine? ›
The top sweetest wines are Port, Moscato, Ice Wines, Meads and Tokaji Eszencia. Mead in particular is sweet, fruity and made with honey. Residual sugar (RS) is the measure of sugars, usually grape sugars, leftover in a wine after the alcoholic fermentation finishes. It's measured in g/L, for every 1%, there's 10 g/L.
Attack: This is the first sensation we perceive when tasting a wine. Balance: This is the result of sweet, acidic, savory and bitter flavors complementing each other in a wine. With whites, it involves body (sensation of lushness on the palate), acidity and sweetness (sugar and/or alcohol).
What are three 3 different styles of fortified wine commonly served? ›
Fortified wine is a wine to which a distilled spirit, usually brandy, has been added. In the course of some centuries, winemakers have developed many different styles of fortified wine, including port, sherry, madeira, Marsala, Commandaria wine, and the aromatised wine vermouth.
How to properly do wine tasting? ›
Use Your Senses: When you smell the wine, inhale deeply and try to identify the different aromas. Take your time to let the scents unfold. Sip and Savor: Taste the wine by taking a small sip and allowing it to linger on your palate. Pay attention to the balance of sweetness, acidity, tannins, and flavors.
What is the first step of wine tasting? ›
See: Begin the tasting process by visually assessing the wine's color and clarity. Take note of the intensity of the color, whether it's a vibrant red, golden yellow, or pale straw. Observe the transparency and viscosity of the wine, as these visual cues offer insights into its age and potential characteristics.
