5 Easy Wine Tasting Tips for Beginners: Find a wine you like and get tasting!
Are you the kind of mom who’s always been interested in trying wine but have no idea where to start? No idea what to buy or how to taste it? It’s not as intimidating as you might think. First, take this quiz to find out which kinds of wines you might like. Now go grab a bottle and let’s get tasting!
1. Swirl and Look
Swirling helps to release the wine’s aroma. It also gives you a look at those sexy “legs.” The speed of the wine “legs” dripping down the inside of the glass helps tell you how much alcohol or sugar is in there.
2. Smell
Even as a beginner you’re likely to be able to detect some of the aromas in your wine. Berries, citrus, oak, chocolate and vanilla are a few common aromas. Check the label on your bottle, they almost always note some of the flavors you can expect to experience through smell and taste.
3. Taste
Wine tasting can be really hard, apparently even for experts. Every wine has a different taste, and every taster has a different palette. You should be able to detect sweet, sour or bitter taste pretty quickly. You’ll also notice your vino’s texture; descriptors such as velvety, robust, smooth and rich help describe texture. Another factor that lots of wine tasters tend to pay a lot of attention to is dryness. According to WineSpectator.com perceptions of dryness will vary from person to person, but lots of people consider their dryness preferences important in their wine tasting experiences. Here’s a little tip from me: try identifying flavors on your own first before checking the label, it makes the tasting more fun!
4. Cleanse
Since we are tasting multiple wines a palette cleanser like plain bread, water crackers or cold water might help you distinguish the different tastes in each bottle without the interference of the foods you’ve been eating. If you’ve got yummy snacks like fruit and cheese, cleanse your palette before you begin tasting or just save them for after you taste everything and decide which wine you want more of.
5. Enjoy
This is the most important step. Don’t overthink it, just enjoy what you’re tasting. There’s an article on Medium.com written by a wine insider who says that all the fancy schmancy terms and tasting techniques arent’ what’s most important; the only thing that really matters is whether you like the wine you’re drinking. Always try to remember this great tip.
You can find more on these tips and tons of other useful wine info on Wine Folly and Wine Enthusiast. Happy Wining!
