Tasting Wine

Tasting wine is an analytical process that involves almost all the senses: sight, smell, taste and touch. Detecting and remembering colors, aromas and flavors is an essential skill in evaluating wine.
Yet wine appreciation remains a subjective field; the chemical components of wine can be analyzed in minute detail, but judgments of quality and character still rely on sensory evaluation. Each person perceives wine in his or her own way.
A few easy precautions to follow when attending a tasting, hosting your own, or just enjoying new wines with friends and family are that smoking will alter the scent and flavor of a wine, as will breath mints and bubble gum, perfume and cologne, as well as any comments - keep your reactions to yourself until after everyone has had a chance to taste and decide for themselves! Remember as well that tasting wines when you are sick or have a cold will mask more subtle flavors and scents.

The simple act of drinking wine is completely different from a formal tasting, which is a function structured according to a precise methodology aimed at producing a disciplined assessment of perceived sensations. Even then, a wine requires concentrated attention if it is to be fully appreciated and the capacity to analyze it adds to the pleasure of drinking it.

Rim Color and Swirling
To take an active role in tasting wine means you must also try out a few small tricks before smelling or tasting. To help maximize what you learn about the wine on first encounter it is important to be in tune with the wine's less obvious characteristics. This is much like meeting a new person and noticing how the shoes on their feet indicate an element of their larger personality.
The rim color of the wine can reveal information about its age. For example, an older red will have a rusty red or even brownish color while a younger red will have a somewhat darker, sometimes purplish coloring. In order to observe the rim color simply tilt the wine glass at an angle and observe the wine near the front most edge against a white surface such as a tablecloth or napkin.
After you have a better idea about the age of the wine then you should place the glass flat of the table and while holding the stem gently but vigorously, swirl the wine. Be sure to keep the bottom flat against the smooth surface of the counter, table, or table cloth to help keep the glass stable and prevent the wine from sloshing out of the glass. The act of swirling allows you to further envision the color of the wine as well as its body. A thicker body may determine higher alcohol content or even greater sweetness before the wine is actually tasted. Swirling helps to circulate the wine so that its aromas can spread and be absorbed into the air in and around the glass. This will give you important clues for the next, most important, step of the tasting.

Order of Tasting
In tasting wine take care to organize a crescendo of flavor. Powerful, strong-flavored wines followed by lighter ones, however good, make the latter disappear. The standard is to follow younger with older, lighter with heavier, drier with sweeter, and to put red after white.
Cleansing the Palate
Good white bread is the standard palate-cleanser at tastings because it's neutral in flavor. If you watch professional wine buyers doing their work, they'll take a piece of bread and a drink of water between wines in order to judge each one from a standing start. You'll sometimes see apples and other fruit served with wine, but that's not the best combination; in fact, fruit may make the wine taste a little sour.
Tasting Steps
The secret of getting the maximum pleasure out of wine is to remember that we smell tastes: it is our nose and the nerves high in the brain behind the nasal cavity that distinguish nuances of flavor-more than our tongues, lips or palates. The mouth detects what is sweet, sour, salt, bitter, burning, smooth, oily, astringent. But the color and character of a flavor lie in its volatile compounds, which need the nose to apprehend them. The first sniff is crucial since the sense of smell rapidly wearies.

Step 1 : First look carefully at the precise color, clarity and visual texture of the wine. Placing a piece of white paper behind the glass can help. Also, handle the glass by the stem so as not to leave fingerprints or warm the wine with your hands.
Step 2 : Swirl the wine to volatize its aroma while you concentrate. The glass should only be filled to about a fifth of its capacity.
Step 3 : Sniff, trying to exclude all other thoughts. First impressions are crucial and should trigger recognition.
Step 4: Take a generous sip, a third of a mouthful, and "chew" it so it reaches all parts of your mouth.
Step 5: The final judgment comes when the volatile compounds rise into the nasal cavity.
Step 6: Spit out all the wine - it is essential to keep a clear head.

Aftertaste
A good wine tasting also includes a reflection on what you have just learned about the wine. Before taking another sip or cleansing the palate sit back and contemplate the flavors still in your mouth. The aftertaste of the wine may linger or it may fade quickly. Does the wine leave your mouth dry? Are the flavors in the wine balanced and what other flavors do they remind you of (fruits, herbs, smoke, flowers, etc.)? Most importantly, was the flavor and texture of the wine pleasant to your palate?

A List of Some Common Flavor Descriptions:
Fruits:
Citrus - grapefruit, lemon; Berry - blackberry, raspberry, strawberry, black currant (cassis); Tree fruit - cherry, apricot, peach, apple; Tropical fruit - pineapple, melon, banana; dried fruit - strawberry jam, raisins, prune, fig
Vegetables: fresh - stems, cut green grass, bell pepper, eucalyptus, mint, green olive, black olive, artichoke, straw, tea, tobacco, garlic, cabbage
Nuts: walnut, hazelnut, almond
Sweets: honey, butterscotch, butter, soy sauce, chocolate (and bitter), molasses
Earth: vanilla, cedar, oak, smoky, burnt toast, charred, coffee, dusty, mushroom, musty (mildew), moldy cork (usually a bottle gone bad)
Chemical: tar, plastic, kerosene, diesel; sulfur, skunk, burnt match, wet wool, wet dog; papery - wet cardboard, soapy
Pungent: hot - alcohol; cool - menthol, vinegar, fishy Microbiological: yeast, sauerkraut, sweaty
Floral: orange blossom, rose, violet, geranium, lilac, clover. Spices: cloves, black pepper, licorice, anise, cayenne.

The best thing when trying a wine for the first time if you are a novice to wine tasting is to taste the wine and note down all the different flavors you perceive. Don't try to identify with any in these lists, and don't worry about what it is "supposed" to taste like. Close your eyes and let your mind wander off. People have suggested that some wines tasted of dirty socks! You can't be wrong because wine tasting is totally subjective.