All About Wine Tasting

Wine tasting is the sensory evaluation of wine, encompassing more than taste, but also mouthfeel, aroma, and colour. The main aims of wine tasting are to: assess the wine's quality.
determine the wine's maturity and suitability for aging or immediate drinking.. detect the aromas and flavours of the wine.
discover the many facets of wine, so as to better appreciate it.
To assess a wine's quality, one must gauge its complexity of aroma and flavour, determine the intensity of the aroma and flavour, check that the flavours and structural elements — such as acid, tannin and alcoholic strength — are well balanced, and finally see how long the wine persists in the mouth after tasting.
Practiced wine tasters will gauge the wine's quality in other ways too. These include, whether the wine is of high quality with respect to other wines of its price, region or vintage; if it is typical of the region it is made in or diverges in style; if it uses certain wine making techniques, such as barrel fermentation or malolactic fermentation; or if it has any wine faults. Many professional wine tasters, such as sommeliers or buyers for retailers, look for characteristics in the wine which are desirable to wine drinkers or which indicate that the wine is likely to sell or mature well.

Blind tasting
To ensure impartial judgment of a wine, it should be served blind — that is, without the taster(s) having seen the label. This is done because knowing the identity of a wine can prejudice tasters for or against it, due to its geographic origin, price, reputation, or other considerations.

Serving temperature
For a tasting, still wines should be served at between 16 and 18°C (60 and 64°F), even if the wines would usually be served chilled. At this temperature, the aromas and flavours of the wine are believed to be most easily detectable. It also ensures that the wines can be judged in a standardized way.
The exception to this convention is sparkling wine which is usually tasted chilled. The thinking behind this is that many sparkling wines can be unpleasant in the mouth when they are warm.

Order of tasting
Tasting order is very important, as heavy or sweet wines can dominate lighter wines and skew the taster's assessment of those wines. As such, wines should be tasted in the following order: sparkling wines; light whites, then heavy whites; roses; light reds; heavy reds; sweet wines.
Without having tasted the wines, however, one does not know if, for example, a white is heavy or light. Before tasting, try to determine the order the wines should be assessed in, by appearance and nose alone. Remember that heavy wines will be deeper in colour and generally more intense on the nose. Sweeter wines, being denser, will leave thick, viscous streaks (called legs) down the inside of the glass, when swirled.

Spitting out wine during tasting
As an alcoholic drink, wine can affect the consumer's judgment. As such, at formal tastings, where dozens of wines may be assessed, wine tasters generally spit out the wine while they are assessing its quality.

Visiting wineries
Traveling to wine regions is another way of increasing skill in tasting. Many wine producers in wine regions all over the world offer tastings of their wine. Depending on the country or region, tasting at the winery may incur a small charge to allow the producer to cover costs.
It is not considered rude to spit out wine at a winery, even in the presence of the wine maker or owner. Generally, a spittoon will be provided. In some regions of the world, tasters simply spit on the floor or onto gravel surrounding barrels. It is polite to inquire about where to spit before beginning tasting.

Attending Wine Schools
A growing number of wine schools can be found, offering wine tasting classes to the public. These programs often help a wine taster hone and develop their abilities in a controlled setting. Some also offer professional training for sommeliers and winemakers in the art of wine tasting.

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