How-To: Wine Tasting

Hi everyone,

A couple of my readers have approached me both digitally and in person to ask me to do a segment or two on wine etiquette, beer tasting, and collection building. These "lessons" will feature some advice about how to taste wine, what to do, what not to do, and some general guidelines and clarification on oenophilia. I know that some terms can be confusing, and I hope by clarifying them here, you all can be better tasters and can follow along more easily.

So let's talk today about tasting.

When you think of 'wine tasting', what comes to your mind? Probably a bunch of snobby French guys in dinner jackets sitting in a mahogany-paneled room remarking on the wine's "notes of sandalwood and tannins" and then spitting out their wine. Well, that was my initial thought as well. And there are certainly people out there like that. But several years ago, I traveled with my folks to Sonoma and Napa Valley in California, where I attended several wine tastings at vineyards like Coppola and Mondavi. In retrospect, these visits showed me that wine tasting can be informal, casual, and most of all enjoyable. In fact, you don't need to travel to an overpriced winery or fancy party to have your own tasting - I'll show you how.

Don't be this guy. Be normal.
Source: intoxreport.com

My philosophy on beer and wine is simple: drink what you enjoy. If you like a certain kind of beer or wine, drink it and don't let anyone tell you not to. BUT - the most critical thing - is to know WHY you like it. Be able to back it up. The most crucial step to enjoying something it so be able to identify what you like and why you like it. What tastes do you like? What flavors and textures appeal to you? The only way to know these things, and by extension, the only way to know WHY you like something, is to try it. Be adventurous!

This guide will help you in the future to make educated recommendations to others and will help increase your own enjoyment of the wine or beer. Wine tasting and beer tasting are similar, but different enough to spend time on each. Today we'll talk about wine tasting.

The goal of wine tasting is to identify flavors and scents and the elements, but unless you're doing it professionally, the evaluation of its characteristics should not supersede your enjoyment. In other words, do not let your analysis of the wine prohibit you from enjoying it. Your main goal here should be to get to know your wine while also enjoying it!

To do this correctly, you don't need to know fancy words like "mouthfeel" or "evolution of palette." Those could come in handy later, but for right now you just need to know how to describe what you are tasting. When you start, you may not be ready to detect "notes of sandalwood" or "vanilla bean" or "crisp blackberry." That's okay. That will come in time. Focus on general descriptors at first - dry, fruity, acidic, alcoholic. As you get more familiar with things, you will be able to more accurately describe what you're tasting.

You will also need to start with a few things. They are:

1) Wine, appropriately prepared (i.e. chilled or not.)

2) A glass. Any normal looking wine glasses should be fine. My go-to wine glasses are Riedel Vinum bordeaux glasses.

You don't have to spend that much on glasses, but having a good-quality stemware is important. You will also notice that some retailers sell fancy stemware especially made to somehow enhance the specific characteristics of a particular kind of wine. While there is some truth to that, for our purposes I would largely ignore this.

3) A white piece of paper.

4) A positive attitude and an open mind.

So once you have these things, you can begin to properly taste your beverage. You'll want to be on the lookout for three main things as you taste: appearance, smell, and taste. Your senses are your best friend and will tell you a lot about what you're drinking even before tasting it.

So first you have to get the wine optimal for tasting. This can be done in several ways, all of which involve exposing the wine to air. Here's my method for tasting wine:

1) Refrigerate white wine for 2 hours before drinking or red wines for 10 minutes.
2) Take out wine 10 minutes before serving.
3) Open the wine carefully and set the cork aside.
4) Pour out an inch or so of wine in your glass. Replace the cork in the bottle.
5) Hold cork securely in the bottle and shake vigorously for 15 seconds.*
6) Set wine back down and take out the cork. You may now pour desired amount in to your glass.
7) Let the wine sit for 10 or so minutes until you're ready to serve.

*According to friend and wine merchant Charles Bissell, this is something that should not be done for wines with significant age or with visible (and desired) natural sediment. This could hurt the wine...but in general, for most wines we'll be drinking, shaking is fine.

Once you've done this, you are ready to start.

First, there's the appearance of the beverage itself.

After your pour it in a glass, what does it look like? Is it murky? Clear? Any carbonation? What color is it? Try holding it up to the light. What do you see?

Hold it at an angle to check out the colors and the light.

Now put your white piece of paper behind the wine and put it in the light. Does the color change? Check out your wine from all angles and notice any differences.

 All these things are important to note because as you become a more experienced taster, these visual cues will help you anticipate and evaluate your wine. Once you get to know the particular characteristics of a beverage in terms of its appearance, you can then begin to evaluate it next time you have it. For example, let's say you like Cotes du Rhone, like I do. And every time you drink it, hypothetically, let's say you see it's a deep red / purple color. Maybe you pick up a new bottle from the local store and find that it's a bright red. Hmmm, you may say. Since you've paid attention to the color in the past, you may deduce that something is different. Then, you'll be on the lookout for something different in the taste.

Or even better - let's say a friend of yours finds a bottle in their cellar of your favorite vintage and opens it, and it pours out brown, or dark yellow. Having paid attention to the color in the past, you can now immediately see that this wine's color is not like all the others. If your wine looks like that, you should do the following:

Source: both WineZag.com and most Dickinson parties I went to

These colors should raise some concerns that the wine has gone bad. Also, if the wine has any serious chunky particles in it (outside of the usual sediment, which is natural in some vintages) that should be a signal to take care. Not always - as some particles can be OK. But for the most part, any serious hunks of junk in there are bad. The particles would be very evident when you pour it out.

Secondly, the smell of the wine - also called the "nose" or "aromas."

This step can be done concurrently or immediately after the appearance phase. Much of our tasting sense is affected by smelling, so this step is crucial. What does this beverage smell like? Is the smell strong? Spicy? Is the nose bitter or sweet? Does it have an alcohol sting to it? Does it have a pungent aroma or is it clean and odorless?

The nose of a wine develops properly after being oxidized - and you did that when you shook the hell out of it - but you should also be aerating it while tasting. This process, also called "volatizing the esters" is going to help keep your wine happy in the glass. You do this by swirling the wine around the glass.

With your glass firmly on the table, try gently holding the base and making small circles or a gentle back-and-forth motion.

See how the wine inside sloshes around? That right there is your wine mixing with the air. This is a good thing. Keep volatizing throughout your tasting experience.

Last of all, the actual taste itself. 

Start by taking a small sip. As strange as it sounds, I actually sip a little bit and suck the wine into my mouth like I'm drinking from a straw. That once again volatizes the wine and stirs up those esters.

As you drink - pay attention to the basics. Is the wine dry? Fruity? Is it acidic? Sweet? Is it tasty? Write down your first impressions on the pad of paper. First impressions are important and will help you later.

There are actually several "steps" to a gulp of wine. Basically, there's the first sip, then there's the taste as it sits in your mouth (also called 'development', where the wine's flavors develop and mature on your tongue), then there's the finish, which is the flavors imparted on your throat as the wine passes through. Finally, the aftertaste, which are the flavors left in your mouth after you've swallowed.

Pay attention, at first, to this four-step process. Write down your notes for each step of the way. Are there any changes? Refer back to your notes from the first sip. Tracking how a wine behaves as you enjoy it is critical for forming a good snapshot of a wine and its taste. Some questions to ask yourself as you are tasting are:

1) How does the flavor change?
2) What am I tasting in each step?
3) Is what I am tasting pleasant?
4) How does this wine stack up against others I've had of this vintage?

You don't have to know fancy words or spit out your wine to be a wine tasting pro. You just have to have an open mind and a bottle of wine. Once you know what you're looking for - color, taste, smell, appearance, and flavors - with a bit of practice you can really start to pick out what you like in a wine and what you're tasting. As you take notes, and as you try more and more wines, you'll begin to draw some conclusions about what you like and what you don't like. This will help you narrow down what flavors you enjoy and what vintages are your favorites.

Next segment, we're going to talk about how to use the knowledge you gained here to then choose a wine for dinner. This is not as daunting as it sounds, and will really add to your enjoyment of both wine and meal.