Uncork your senses

Tasting wine goes beyond appreciating flavours. In fact, to fully appreciate wine you need to engage four of your five senses: sight, smell, taste, and touch. If you count the beautiful sound of the cork popping, then it’s all five.

Sight

Hold your glass of wine by the stem and tip the glass at a slight angle, preferably against a white background. Look at the clarity and colour of the wine. The wine shouldn’t be cloudy or have sediments.

Now look at the colour. For reds, it ranges from purple to mahogany or garnet. Usually, the older the wine, the darker the colour.

If you’re tasting white wine, the spectrum ranges from a green tinge to light brown or amber colour. Look out for dark brown hues, which may be a sign that the wine has aged too long.

Now, swirl the wine in the glass carefully and take note of the “legs” of the wine. The longer it takes for the wine to move back down the glass, the higher the alcohol. In the case of white wines, it also indicates higher sugar content.

Smell

When you’re smelling your wine, don’t be shy. Make sure your nose is in the bowl of the glass when you inhale. Warm up your nose and take a whiff. Now swirl the wine again in the glass. Swirling the wine will help release the aromas of the wine.

Inhale again. This time, take a moment to think about the fragrances and try to identify them. What you smell can include: fresh fruit or berries, dried fruit, flowers, nuts, spices, herbs, and vegetation. You might also smell aromas from the barrels the wine was aged in, such as vanilla, cedar or oak.

Finally, take another whiff and try to identify any scents that show the wine’s age and maturity. The smell of leather, coffee beans, truffles or chocolate may be present.

Taste and touch

Take a small sip and swirl the wine in your mouth by taking in a small amount of air. Just like air helps release the aromas of the wine when you smell, they also help release the flavours of the wine in your mouth.

You’ll notice three main phases:

First impressions – when the wine is introduced to your palate

Secondary impressions – this is the time to “chew” your wine for 10 to 20 seconds by continually swirling it in your mouth. At this point, you should be able to taste the berries and vanilla that you smelled.

Finish – Once you’ve spit or swallowed your wine, it will leave an aftertaste. This is where your sense of touch comes in. With a good wine, you’ll feel and taste the flavours and tannins long after you’ve swallowed. Most often, you’ll notice tannins as a drying feeling or bitter taste in your mouth.

If you like it, it’s good

After you’ve tasted the wine, ask yourself if you liked what you saw, smelled and tasted. If you did, then make a note of the bottle so the next time you have guests, you can share something you actually enjoy yourself. Because in the end, all you need to know about wine is what you like.