| The one thing that you shouldn’t do when | | | | whether the wine is a heavy or one or not, as |
| you’re tasting wine is to taint your sense of | | | | these tend to leave the most number of legs on |
| smell and taste by smoking before or during your | | | | a glass. |
| tasting, or eating anything before or during your | | | | Like I said the order of tasting wine should be |
| tasting. This is one sure fire way to dull your | | | | from light to dark, or from white to red. But |
| taste buds and to mangle up your wine tasting. | | | | before you start off with your white wines you |
| And for certain if you’re near any other wine | | | | might want to take a look at your sparkling wines |
| tasters, they won’t like if you smoke | | | | first. |
| 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 | | | | like champagne first, then go on to the light white |
| a number of different reds and whites, then | | | | wines, and next on to the heavy white wines. |
| ideally you should take things in a light to dense | | | | Take a trip to the rosés after that, and then |
| order. In other words, taste the lighter wines first, | | | | move on to the light red wines. |
| then move on to the heavier wines. | | | | Next, head on over to the heavy red wines |
| If you don’t know the difference yourself, | | | | before making a stop at the sweet wines section. |
| then use your judgment as far as possible by | | | | One last thing about tasting wine, you should be |
| using your sense of smell and your sight first. | | | | aware of. At formal tasting wine events where |
| There are more often than not, distinct qualities | | | | there will almost definitely be more than one wine |
| for the different wines and these can be told | | | | to taste, the tasters will be in the habit of spitting |
| most of the 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 | | | | filled with sawdust. The sawdust is added to soak |
| the 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 |
| amount of legs on a glass that better quality the | | | | they are tasting. |
| wine was. | | | | Most likely at a tasting wine event, you will also |
| In reality that’s not the case however, and | | | | be presented with water in which to rinse out |
| the days of determining the quality of a wine in | | | | your mouth after tasting wine, which you again |
| that method are long since gone. The legs of the | | | | spit out, or unsalted crackers or French bread |
| wine can however, help you to determine | | | | with which to soak up the wine. |