Wine Tasting

The act of tasting wine can help you get the most out of a wine experience. This may seem like a pretentious activity, but it can be quite fun and interesting. By putting more of your senses into play you will experience wine in new and different ways.

Joining local wine clubs is an excellent way to try a broad variety of wines without the expense or risk of buying many wines that you don't like. These club usually host monthly events that feature a ceratin style of wine or revolve around a particular theme.

Steps to Wine Tasting:

1. Color - Look at the wine. This is best done over a white table cloth. Red wines will show a brick or leathery brown as they age. A lighter red, such as Pinot Noir, will have a brighter, more ruby-red color. White wines will tend to take on a golden color over time. A very young white will look almost colorless. You cannot necessarily determine quality by looking at the wine. This mostly serves as a starting point.
2. Aroma - Raise the glass to yor nose and sniff, trying not to agitate the wine. Hold the stem of the glass and swirl the glass to coat the side with the wine. After you have coated the side of the glass rasie the wine and sniff again. At this point the aroma should be much more noticable. You may notice various armos like chocolate, coffee, oak, mushrooms, various fruits, and other earthy smells. The aromas of a wine will change as it ages.
3. Taste - Now take a good sip of wine. Taking some air into your mouth at the same time can bring out more flavor. Slosh the wine around in your mouth. be sure to distribute the wine througout your mouth so you can activate the four categories of taste - sweet, sour, bitter and salt. Take notice to the texture of the wine. This is known as "mouthfeel". It may feel light or heavy, thick(chewy) or light and crisp. Some wines will have an astringent effect.This is due to high tannin conetnt and means the wine might need cellaring. Acidity is also an important factor, often giving a crispness to the finish. Too much acidity can add harshness to the wine, too little can make it heavy and limp.
4. Spit or Swallow - Professional wine tasters will always spit. This isn't necessary for the social wine taster. It's perfectly fine to swallow the wine. when swallowing your tastings it's always a good idea to limit the number of wines you taste. Not only for obvious reasons of not over imbibing, but after a while your tasting abilities will diminish.
5. Check out our Tasting Notes