Wine for Beginners: How to Taste Wine

Wine-tasting is a branch of knowledge and art; after all, it is a culture. For example, when you enjoy a painting or a song, if you don’t have a degree of artistic or musical accomplishment, it will be very hard for you to tell the difference between what is good and what is bad. However, wine-tasting is not the patent of the masters. As a beginner, as long as you master it, you can also enjoy the sweetness of wine.

Just like the flirting before intimacy, there are also a few of procedures that can’t be omitted before wine-tasting. Generally speaking, the way of wine-tasting is nothing more than the observation of vision, smell and taste, which is the same as tea-tasting. In general, there are 6 steps in wine-tasting.

• PLACE

A room of good lighting, fresh air and cool temperature is always the best choice. Tinted glass window or lamp will affect the judgement of eyes on wine color. In addition, any smell, such as the smell of perfume, cigarette or flowers, should be avoided.

• TIME

The ideal time of wine-tasting is before eating, between 10 a.m. and 12 a.m. at best. It is learnt that people’s sense of taste is most sensitive during this period. It would be best not to drink liquor or coffee, eat chocolate or betel nut, or smoke a cigarette before tasting wine.

• TEMPERATURE

Traditionally, the temperature for tasting wine is between 18℃ and 21℃. At this temperature, wine of all kinds of years reached an optimum state. A higher temperature will make the wine quickly oxidized and volatile, while a lower temperature will make the smell of wine congealed and cause an acid taste.

• DECANTING

A vintage bottle of wine is usually treasured for many years. But there will be some peculiar smell when you open it. At this time, you need to “wake” it up. Pour the wine through the wine aerator into the glass, allowing the air to fully infuse to the wine. After the wine being fully oxidized, the peculiar smell will disappear, and the delightful aroma of wine will come out.

• OBSERVING

The color of wine is tantalizing. In sufficient light, observing the wine color against the white background, you can figure out the age of this wine. The more well-distributed the color is, the longer of years the wine has.

• TASTING

Taking a deep sniff at the wine before drinking it, you will enjoy the fragrance. Then taking a sip, and making the wine stay a little while in the mouth, at this moment, your tongue will fully experience the wine. Finally, swallowing it, you will immediately get another wonderful feeling.

The expensive and good wine is a work of art. In fact, the custom of wine-tasting is not a set rule. Each “wino” (even the beginner) will try his/her best to obtain the fragrance of an old bottle, as long as he loves wine.