| The one thing that you shouldn't do when you're | | | | wine is a heavy or one or not, as these tend to |
| tasting wine is to taint your sense of smell and | | | | leave the most number of legs on a glass. |
| taste by smoking before or during your tasting, | | | | Like I said the order of tasting wine should be |
| or eating anything before or during your tasting. | | | | from light to dark, or from white to red. But |
| This is one sure fire way to dull your taste buds | | | | before you start off with your white wines you |
| and to mangle up your wine tasting. And for | | | | might want to take a look at your sparkling wines |
| certain if you're near any other wine tasters, they | | | | first. |
| won't like if you smoke anywhere near them. | | | | Since I threw that in merely to confuse you, I |
| Quite a few people advocate tasting wine blindly. | | | | shall also now take you out of that confusion, by |
| This means that you taste the wine without | | | | giving you the correct descending order for |
| looking at its label. This will save you initial | | | | tasting wine. In other words start from the top |
| prejudice or favoritism you might feel towards | | | | and make your way through the wines in an |
| that particular wine if you know details about it. | | | | orderly fashion! So, start with the sparkling wines |
| And if you're tasting wine more than once, or a | | | | like champagne first, then go on to the light white |
| number of different reds and whites, then ideally | | | | wines, and next on to the heavy white wines. |
| you should take things in a light to dense order. In | | | | Take a trip to the rosés after that, and |
| other words, taste the lighter wines first, then | | | | then move on to the light red wines. |
| move on to the heavier wines. | | | | Next, head on over to the heavy red wines |
| If you don't know the difference yourself, then | | | | before making a stop at the sweet wines section. |
| use your judgment as far as possible by using | | | | One last thing about tasting wine, you should be |
| your sense of smell and your sight first. There | | | | aware of. At formal tasting wine events where |
| are more often than not, distinct qualities for the | | | | there will almost definitely be more than one wine |
| different wines and these can be told most of the | | | | to taste, the tasters will be in the habit of spitting |
| time by sight and smell alone. | | | | out their small mouthful of wine into a provided |
| For instance, sweet heavy wines will be thicker | | | | receptacle. |
| and leave streaks on the sides of glass when it | | | | This will generally be in the form of a spittoon |
| it's swirled, these are generally referred to as the | | | | filled with sawdust. The sawdust is added to soak |
| legs on a wine. And once upon a time, the | | | | up the wine and prevent the wine splashing back. |
| amount of these legs was used as a determinant | | | | The spittoon is provided so that the wine tasters |
| for the quality of a wine, i.e. the greater the | | | | don't become drunk on the amounts of wine they |
| amount of legs on a glass that better quality the | | | | are tasting. |
| wine was. | | | | Most likely at a tasting wine event, you will also |
| In reality that's not the case however, and the | | | | be presented with water in which to rinse out |
| days of determining the quality of a wine in that | | | | your mouth after tasting wine, which you again |
| method are long since gone. The legs of the wine | | | | spit out, or unsalted crackers or French bread |
| can however, help you to determine whether the | | | | with which to soak up the wine. |