Kumala Guide to Wine Tasting
To help you ensure the wine you have chosen to serve is suitable for drinking, we have put together a simple how-to guide for wine tasting. These tips will also improve your wine drinking experience by getting you to notice not only flavor and body, but look and smell as well.
Wine tasting can be separated into three stages: look, smell and taste. As you go through the following series of steps with your wine, pay particular attention to the components of the following table:
| Components | Good | Bad |
|---|---|---|
| Look | Clear, warmer red tones(for reds), yellow or green tones(for whites) | Very brown, haze, particles |
| Nose | Pleasant, Clean, Fresh | Musty, Wet cardboard, Bad eggs |
| Palate | Fresh, Fruity | Corky, Stale, Vinegar |
- Look
-
- Pour about two inches of wine into a clean glass.
- Hold the glass against a white background (such as a tablecloth or piece of paper) and check its color.
- White wines range in color from green to gold. More color usually indicates more flavor or an older wine. Brown may indicate that the wine has gone bad. White wines generally do not benefit from aging.
- Red wines range in color from purple to mahogany, usually becoming lighter as they age. To better see a red wine's color, tilt the glass and look at the edge of the wine. Purple to red indicates youth, where as warmer tones, such as orange to brown indicate maturity.
- Swirl the wine around in the glass. Notice how the wine “clings” to the sides of the glass. “Good legs” indicate a higher alcohol content and/or level of sweetness.
- Smell
-
- Put your nose into the glass (without touching the wine of course) and take a quick sniff of the wine. It should smell pleasant and fresh and not musty. Formulate an initial impression.
- Take one more deeper whiff of the wine, this time trying to pull apart the stronger scents from the more gentle underlying ones.
- It is important to not sniff the wine too much, as your sense of smell will quickly deaden to the subtler aromas.
- Taste
-
- Take a small mouthful of wine and swirl it around so that it comes in contact with all parts of your mouth. Note its balance of sweetness and acidity.
- Draw in some air to draw out the flavors of the wine and notice its body and texture.
- Swallow or spit and make note of the after taste of the wine. Notice its duration and the different flavors that pass by.