Wine tasting

Wine tasting is the sensory evaluation of wine, encompassing more than taste, but also mouthfeel, aroma, and colour. The main aims of wine tasting are to:

assess the wine's quality
determine the wine's maturity and suitability for aging or immediate drinking
detect the aromas and flavours of the wine
discover the many facets of wine, so as to better appreciate it

To assess a wine's quality, one must gauge its complexity of aroma and flavour, determine the intensity of the aroma and flavour, check that the flavours and structural elements — such as acid, tannin and alcoholic strength — are well balanced, and finally see how long the wine persists in the mouth after tasting.

Practiced wine tasters will gauge the wine's quality in other ways too. These include, whether the wine is of high quality with respect to other wines of its price, region or vintage; if it is typical of the region it is made in or diverges in style; if it uses certain wine making techniques, such as barrel fermentation or malolactic fermentation; or if it has any wine faults. Many professional wine tasters, such as sommeliers or buyers for retailers, look for characteristics in the wine which are desirable to wine drinkers or which indicate that the wine is likely to sell or mature well.

Blind tasting

To ensure impartial judgement of a wine, it should be served blind — that is, without the taster(s) having seen the label. This is done because knowing the identity of a wine can prejudice tasters for or against it, due to its geographic origin, price, reputation, or other considerations.

Serving temperature

For a tasting, still wines should be served at between 16 and 18°C (60 and 64°F), even if the wines would usually be served chilled. At this temperature, the aromas and flavours of the wine are believed to be most easily detectable. It also ensures that the wines can be judged in a standardised way.

The exception to this convention is sparkling wine which is usually tasted chilled. The thinking behind this is that many sparkling wines can be unpleasant in the mouth when they are warm.

Order of tasting

Tasting order is very important, as heavy or sweet wines can dominate lighter wines and skew the taster's assessment of those wines. As such, wines should be tasted in the following order: sparkling wines; light whites, then heavy whites; roses; light reds; heavy reds; sweet wines.

Without having tasted the wines, however, one does not know if, for example, a white is heavy or light. Before tasting, try and determine the order the wines should be assessed in, by appearance and nose alone. Remember that heavy wines will be deeper in colour and generally more intense on the nose. Sweeter wines, being denser, will leave thick, viscous streaks (called legs) down the inside of the glass, when swirled.

Evaluation

The best way to improve one's wine tasting ability is to taste as much wine as possible, on a regular basis. When tasting, the following characteristics of the wine are generally evaluated:

Colour

The colour of the wine. Does its colour give any indication of age or maturity?

Young white wines are often pale in colour while older white wines take on a colour of straw or can even be golden. Young red wines can be dark and opaque purple while older red wines can take on a red brick or even amber hue, particularly at the rim of the glass.

Nose

Distinct aromas. How intense are they?

Any wine can have many different aromas and the best will often have a complex collection. As knowledge of different wine grape varieties increases, so will ability to identify different aromas and which belong to each grape.

Wine's not to be sniffed at: smelling should not be rushed. The aroma of the wine, which in most wines corresponds to its flavour, is one of the most important aspects of tasting a wine. It tells the taster about most aspects of the wine's quality, thus inhale deep and long to learn the wine's secrets.

Palate

Is the wine acidic? Is it tannic? Are the tannins fine or are they hard and difficult to drink? Is the wine light, medium or full bodied? What does the wine taste like and how intense are those flavours? How alcoholic is it? Is the wine dry or sweet? How long does it persist in the mouth after tasting?

To assess the palate of a wine is to look at its structure: sugar, tannin, acid, alcohol and intensity of flavours. Ideally, these structural attributes should balance each other, except in wines designed to be out of balance (such as Barolo, which is very tannic and acidic, and Rutherglen Muscat, which is very sweet with low acid).

Spitting out wine during tasting

As an alcoholic drink, wine can affect the consumer's judgement. As such, at formal tastings, where dozens of wines may be assessed, wine tasters generally spit out the wine while they are assessing its quality.

The correct method for the spitting out of wine is:

only a small amount of wine is taken into the mouth — less than 20 millilitres (approx. one oz)
the lips are pursed so that they pout
the head is directed toward the spittoon — as close as possible when learning
the wine is pushed through the pursed lips with the assistance of the tongue while looking into the spittoon. This will ensure that the aim is consistent.

It is best to practice with water to hone this technique.

Caution: Spittoons fill up quickly. For formal tastings, it is customary to place sawdust in the spittoon to absorb the liquid as it is spat out and to prevent splash back.

Visiting wineries

Travelling to wine regions is another way of increasing skill in tasting. Many wine producers in wine regions all over the world offer tastings of their wine. Depending on the country or region, tasting at the winery may incur a small charge to allow the producer to cover costs.

It is not considered rude to spit out wine at a winery, even in the presence of the wine maker or owner. Generally, a spittoon will be provided. In some regions of the world, tasters simply spit on the floor or onto gravel surrounding barrels. It is polite to inquire about where to spit before beginning tasting.

External links

Wine tasting guide
The UK wine tasting society - membership open to everyone
Wine tasting
A general overview of Wine Glass Stemware This report examines wine glasses - discussing attributes relating to the flavor of wine.