Wine Education - Basic Wine Tasting Guide

Tasting wine should be an intensely sensualwe perceive first), the persistence and quality of
experience.the aromas.
These basic guidelines will help you sharpen andAt this point you'll be able to perceive the fruity
use in a systematic way your senses ofor floral notes in the young wines and and the
strong>sight, smell and taste to betterspicy and woody flavors of the more mature
appreciate the infinite nuances of a good wine.ones.
- Appearance- Taste
We are very visual creatures and our first ,Finally, with the taste you can appreciate the
instinctive approach to something new is a visualquantity of sugars, alcohol, acids, tannins and
assessment.mineral salts.
In a wine we can observe the color,To better appreciate the balance, intensity and
transparency, fluidity and the fizz of sparklingpersistence of the flavor try to move the wine
wines.around in your mouth and then "chew" it before
In the color, look for the intensity given by theswallowing it.
quantity of pigments and the tone determined bySome wines will give us "soft" sensations due to
the aging and the brightness.sugars or glycerin or hard" impressions caused by
The clarity and transparency are related to thethe acidity.
presence of particles and can be assessedIn some wines you'll be able to taste the mineral
exposing the glass to the light.salts or the tannins that will give an astringent, dry
The texture is given by the content of solidfeeling to the mouth.
particles and pigments in the wine.A good balance of this sensations makes an
Only in sparkling wines we will evaluate theharmonious wine. The intensity, persistence and
persistence of the fizz, the quantity and size ofquality of flavors will determine the degree of
the bubbles.excellence of that particular wine.
- SmellFinally the degree of evolution of the wine has to
First make sure there are no unwanted smells likebe considered. A mature wine is at its best, but
cork or mold, then start looking for the desiredkeep in mind that the life span and time of
characteristics of that particular wine.maturation is peculiar to every single wine.
Look for the intensity (the quantity of perfumes