Wine tasting 101

There are a lot of myths and legends around Wine and Wine tasting. One is this huge misconception that you need to learn a lot about it to really “enjoy” it. While the knowledge can help you enjoy Wine in a different way, you really don't need to know anything about it to take pleasure from it. It is simple: either you like what you have on your glass or you don't. There is no way around this.

Having said that, there is a formal way of tasting Wine. This procedure allows you to gather the most aromas and tastes you could get from your glass. The tasting procedure consists of 5 steps: watching, smelling without swirling, swirling and smelling, tasting, and smelling the glass once it's empty. We will proceed on describing each step and what we could learn from the Wine on each of them.

Watching

This step is quite self-explanatory, we watch the Wine in our glass. We can learn mainly two things about it: Wine type and approximate age. On some occasions, we can detect some Wine faults.

Firstly, in regards to the Wine type, we can observe if it's a white, red, rosé, sparkling or orange Wine.

Secondly, to estimate the age, we have to look at the rim of the Wine, where it gets in contact with the glass. Here you will find the “reflexes”. These give us some hints on the approximate age. Red Wines can be purple, ruby, garnet, or tawny (ordered from younger to older). White Wines can be lemon, gold, or amber. Rosés can be pink, pink-orange, or orange. Orange Wines can be lemon, gold, amber.

Thirdly, there are 2 main faults to look out for. Those are if the Wine is cloudy, and if the Wine has some sort of white strands floating inside. Usually, these two will never be on a Wine sold in a store, because the lots are controlled beforehand, but they can be found on Natural Wines. Finding any of these faults in the Wine means it isn't fit for consumption without previous deep filtering, or might not be fit for consumption at all.

Smelling without swirling

In this step, we will be able to find the main aromas of the Wine in question. Usually, the aromas found here are the most characteristic of the grape variety. Only in extreme cases, secondary or tertiary aromas could be detected (secondary aromas come from the winemaking process and tertiary aromas derive from the ageing process).

At this stage, it's also possible to detect other Wine faults like Atypical Age Tone (AAT), and cork taint. The former is when a clearly young Wine smells like an aged Wine, which can mainly be due to prolonged exposure to oxygen. The latter usually comes from the process of sterilising the bottles or corks and gives the wine a “cork” aroma due to the interactions between the cleaning chemicals and the Wine. In the case of AAT, consuming the Wine won't be harmful, but it won't be pleasant either. If we identify cork taint, it’s better not to consume it, because some products can be harmful to humans.

Swirling and Smelling

Thanks to the swirling, an increasing surface of the wine gets into contact with the air volatilising more aroma compounds and letting us smell the finer details of the Wine in question. Here we will be able to find fainter primary aromas (the ones derived from the grape variety and the fermentation process), secondary aromas, and tertiary aromas.

Some examples of what we can learn from the Wine are the following:

• If the Wine had a Malolactic fermentation (due to a slight buttery or cheesy aroma). 

• If the wine was aged in contact with Oak (due to aromas that resemble vanilla, cedar, coconut, coffee, tobacco, or chocolate). 

• If the wine had prolonged contact with the lees (giving off aromas to biscuits, bread, or yoghurt).

Tasting

This is the main event for most of us, having a sip from the glass and enjoying the tastes and feelings it brings with it. At this stage, you can taste the previous aromas we have described before and also some other characteristics. The latter could include sweetness, acidity, tannin content, alcohol, body and finish. Some of them are self-explanatory, like how sweet, how acidic, or how much alcohol there is in the Wine, but some others aren't. The tannin content refers to how much the Wine “dries” your mouth. The body relates to how the Wine feels on your tongue. And to finish this off, the finish is how long a Wine lingers on your palate after swallowing it, and what tastes it leaves behind.

Smelling the empty glass

This step of the tasting is mainly optional if you are not in the Winemaking industry. Once the glass is empty, smelling it will grant us insights into the processes employed and/or problems encountered by the cellar workers during the Wine production. Mainly, we will be able to smell if the Wine in question got a malolactic fermentation due to the animal notes that can be smelt more intensely here, or if the Wine was exposed to oxygen for a long time, giving aromas associated with volatile acidity.

And with that, we have gone through the main steps of a tasting. It's always recommended to have an aroma wheel by your side when doing a wine tasting, so you can have a basic guide on what is possible for you to find in your glass. Another thing to take into consideration is that the room where you do the tasting should be as aroma neutral as possible (for example, without strong perfumes or cleansing product fragrances). Lastly, since all the aromas you will find on an aroma wheel are just examples, but not all the possibilities, it's important to develop the habit of smelling as many things as possible, to start building an aroma repertoire from where to pick up to describe Wines.