Drinking wine and actually tasting it are two different things. While there’s nothing wrong with just sitting down and drinking a glass of your favorite wine, you can learn a great deal when immersing yourself in the world of wine tasting. Experiencing it and its different flavors and offerings can be an insightful journey and we’re here to tell you how you can start tasting it like a pro.
It all starts with the nose
Wine tasting is actually a lot about the scent of wine instead of the taste. Great sommeliers can tell a great deal about it without taking a sip. So, when you are starting out, don’t jump into tasting it, but learn how the aromas float around.
You need to pour yourself a glass and what we mean is a rather tiny amount, as you need to be swirling the wine around in the glass. The swirling part is important because it introduces oxygen to the wine and therefore allows the aromas to start producing. Once you’ve swirled a few times, sniff with your nose well within the glass. You don’t want your nose to hover around, but really get stuck in.
To pick out different flavors, you might just want to pop down to the local green market and smell the different berries, fruits, vegetables and herbs. This allows your mind to create a connection and you will be better equipped at picking the individual scents from the wine. Wines often are highly spiced as well, so start sniffing spices as well. If you want to go all-out professional with wine smelling, buy the Essences Collection and use it to train your brain.
Move on to aspirating
Aspirating is one of the special moves of professionals. The act is about rolling a sip of wine over your tongue and then sucking air into it. Yes, it’s the weird part of tasting and it undoubtedly looks a bit silly. Yet, it allows oxygen to immerse with the wines and release the flavors. It is during aspirating that you can taste the way it was made; things such as its acidity.
Start writing down your experiences
Professionals often walk around wine fairs with a notebook and jot down the different wines they’ve tasted and the aromas and flavors they’ve experienced. This can help you improve your palette as well, since you can get back to previous wines, and start noticing new flavors and therefore, your progression in tasting it.
Furthermore, you don’t need to start attending professional events in order to do so. You can just buy wine at home or test out different wines at a restaurant, keeping note of each one. If you are a fan of wine, it’s a good idea to join a wine club or a similar service, which can help you test new wines without necessarily spending a fortune. Wine buying websites, like Virgin Wines, offer plenty of discounts, so grab some great opportunities and start tasting!
Keep getting back to certain wines that you found difficult the first time and see if you taste and smell the different flavors as you improve your skills. Don’t worry about using fancy words at the start. You can slowly learn more about wine vocabulary. At the start, you just want to pick things like sweetness, the flavors and so on. As you keep developing, visit wine tasting websites such as Wine Folly to explore the right descriptive words and even compare your notes with other wine tasters.
Keep drinking
The best part about learning to taste wine is the fact you get to drink a lot of it. You will develop your palate quicker if you continue experiencing different wines – for this reason wine subscriptions like Virgin Wines can help. When it comes to selecting wines, be experimental. Don’t just pick wines from a single region or opt for the wines you’ve always enjoyed drinking. It can be helpful to experience flavors you’ve never encountered and try wines you might not generally pick. You can invite friends over to ensure you don’t need to waste a bottle. At restaurants order the smallest glass if you aren’t sure whether you’d enjoy a specific wine. You can also look into buying small taster bottles to ensure you won’t end up with lots of half empty bottles.
If you want, you could consider blind tasting wine as your skills improve. In this, you need to try wines without seeing the bottle – this prevents you from picking clues from the way to bottle looks or the tags on it.
Wine tasting is for anyone who wants to become better at appreciating wines and the different flavors of the world. It’s not too difficult to get started and you can practice at home before venturing into professional events.
