What are the Wine tasting techniques ?

Tasting wine is an art which not everyone can master. Here are certain techniques which will help people in mastering the art of tasting wine.

It is important to know the wine. First thing to be kept in mind is the way you hold your wine glass. If the wine is chilled, the glass should be held from the stem; ensure that you do not touch the bowl as the warmness of the hand will make the bowl and the wine warmer. Subsequently, if the wine is warm, then the glass should be held from the bowl, with the glass’s stem held in between two fingers.

Once the glass is held correctly, the next step is to know the color of the wine. In order to know that, the glass should be held at an arm’s length, hold it at an angle against a white background. Once the holding position is perfect, you will be able to study color and clarity of the wine. Contrary to the common belief, wines are available in colors like green gold, black, purple etc. apart from red, pink and white. The color of the wine can tell which type of grapes had been used to produce that particular wine.

It is important to gauge the clarity of the wine as it will help in telling the age of the wine. The more clear or see through the wine; the younger it is. It is imperative for good wine tasters to check and enjoy each and every aspect of wine while tasting. Apart from taste, thing like color, consistency and clarity also do matter to a wine connoisseur.

The next step would be to ensure the smell of the wine. Holding the position of the glass in the same manner, lower the arm and twist the wrist in order to make the wine swirl inside the glass. The wrist movements have to be very slow and repeated in a flow which will bring out the aroma of the wine into the empty area of the bowl. The aroma of the wine can be smelled from this empty area.

Once the swirling motion is over and the aroma has come onto the empty area, pull the glass towards to the tip of the nose and inhale. Analyze the aroma for sometime and inhale again.

Next is the actual tasting of the wine. The secret to good wine tasting is to always ensure that you take small sips of the wine while tasting, never gulp big sips. Actually tasting the wine is a bit tricky, once you have taken the small sip, make sure that you do not gulp down the wine. Let the wine stay in your mouth for a while and roll it around your mouth or tounge for some time before finaly let it go in. the catch here is, as the wine is let inside the throat, you should exhale. An unwritten rule of tasting wine is that you should take one at the most two sips, never ever take the third sip.

A few other things to be kept in mind are that, you will see, the cheese laid out on the table while tasting wine. This is basically kept to be eaten between tasting two different wines. It will remove the entire flavor or taste of the previous wine from the mouth so that you can taste the other wine as effectively as the first one.