How to Taste Wine Like A Pro

How to Taste Wine Like A Pro

To taste wine like a pro, you need to be knowledgeable and careful when tasting. To describe and treat it as a quick and superficial pleasure would insult all winemakers’ long-standing care and passion worldwide.

Prepare Before the Tasting

It is worthwhile to pause for a moment before immersing yourself in the personality of a wine and greeting the moment with quiet relaxation. You should taste wine in a clean area without smoke or other strong aromas such as food or strong flowers. These aromas could make it difficult to smell the aromas in the wine.

You should have a clean palate without the influence of strong drinks or spicy food. Believe it of not the best time to make wine tasting notes is early in the morning.

Taste Like a Pro

If you want to taste like a Pro, you have to learn the aromas of as many (fruits, herbs, and spices) as you can. Train your memories and your senses, and then you will be able to find them in your glass of wine.

Try as many wines as you can in a vertical and horizontal tasting. Vertical tasting means all the wines are from one grape in different years of production, and you taste them from oldest to youngest. Horizontal tasting means we taste wines from the same grape and the same year of production but from different wineries. Both methods of tasting train our memories and our senses.

Start Wine Tasting

Start with the correct wine glasses. Wine should be at the correct temperature, usually 2 or 3 degrees higher than you would normally serve it because low temperatures can close off some aromas. If you are planning to taste over 10 different wines take a break in the middle, have a glass of water, smell freshly ground coffee, and start again.

 

Look at the Wine

The color of the wine is the first thing a connoisseur notices. Carefully hold the wine glass by the foot or stem for this purpose to avoid overheating the wine. A wine’s visual appearance reveals a lot about its quality and character. The wine’s color reveals a lot about its age, intensity, and origin. The viscosity of the wine can show the alcohol level, sugar quantity, and its body.

Did You Know: When a white wine is gold or even amber colored it has probably been aged several years. Red wines lose color with aging,  becoming more brawny and brick colored.

Numerous shades of rosé and white wine, as well as red wine, can be identified. Golden yellow, light brown, pink, salmon, cherry red, and violet are just a few colors that can appear in the glass. During a leisurely inspection, the eye also recognizes mixtures and colored highlights. The taster will find some options for the discovered colors in the tasting note and enough space for very personal remarks and impressions.

The Nose Slowly Gets to Know the Wine

A nose immersion follows the visual inspection of the wine’s bouquet.[1] To accomplish this, the sommelier swirls the glass briefly and vigorously before sniffing from the glass. Swirling releases aromas, making it more accessible and interesting. It is worthwhile to smell the wine for an extended period, as the aroma of the wine can change over time. Several quick breaths at regular intervals elicit the secondary notes, hidden behind more dominant nuances.

The Texture Emerges on the Palate

After the eye and nose thoroughly explore the wine, it is time to turn to the palate. The knowledge gained will serve as the foundation for future discoveries. To get a sense of the wine’s texture, swirl it briefly and then keep it in your mouth.

A wine’s texture is an exciting field that develops away from individual aromas and nuances. Individual notes initially remain in the background because this is about recognizing the character and structure.

The structural texture then indicates to the connoisseur how balanced the wine is, which grape varieties were used, and gives indications of a region’s and the respective winery’s individual style. It is thus prudent to proceed cautiously and leisurely here as well. The tasting notes will inspire the connoisseur when recording their impressions of the structure.

Gather Taste Impressions with Your Palate and Tongue

The procedure for evaluating a wine’s aromatics on the palate is like the one described above for exploring texture.[2]  Aromatic vapors form from swirling the wine allowing the wine to be smelled easier. These aid in integrating olfactory and gustatory sensory impressions and the identification of individual notes and nuances. Exploring the aromas of wine requires some concentration and patience as the senses of smell and taste interact via the so-called retro nasal connection.

We revealed the aromatic profile of the wine sip by sip. We show here individual and very characteristic notes, representing the grape variety, the growing region, and the expansion. It suffices to pick up a small amount of wine with your mouth to make a good impression.  Professional tasters spit the wine out rather than swallow it during the aromatic evaluation to avoid overconsumption.

Why Vintage and Name Play a Role

Recording the name and vintage are also important for that tasting notes for several factors. As a result, the self-created tasting note can be assigned to a wine only if the name and vintage are known. Furthermore, the vintage indication is an important point that can define the development of a winery and the growing area. [3]

Sommeliers and winery owners continue to look for ways to optimize yields, improve the vinification process, and expand the brand. All connoisseurs draw a picture together that brings past and present into harmony and also allows first conclusions about the future of a drop-through variety of tasting notes on different vintages.
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References:

[1] Vinovest. 2022. Vinovest | Investing in Wine as an Alternative Asset. [online] Available at: <https://www.vinovest.co/blog/how-to-drink-wine>

[2] Wine And Other Stories. 2022. The PIQUANTE method for wine tasting: taste and evaluate ~ Wine And Other Stories. [online] Available at: <https://wineandotherstories.com/the-piquante-method-for-wine-tasting-taste-and-evaluate/>

[3] Wine Folly. 2022. Wine Vintages and Why They Matter (Sometimes) | Wine Folly. [online] Available at: <https://winefolly.com/deep-dive/wine-vintages-and-why-they-matter/>

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