Enjoying Your First Wine Tasting

1. Enjoying Your First Wine Tasting If you’ve never tried out wine tasting before, you’re missing out! And we’re not just talking about drinking wine, but truly getting to know the wine. Wine tasting can be broken down into three steps: observing, smelling, and tasting the wine. We’ll take a look at each phase in a bit more detail below. Observing the Wine The first place you should start when doing a wine tasting is the label. You’ll be able to find out a lot of information, such as the name of the winery, what the wine is comprised of (called the grape varietal), and where the grape was grown. If you tilt the glass back and forth you should see the wine drip down the sides. These little streaks are called the “legs” of the wine. The thicker these streaks are, the more body the wine has. Similarly, the thinner the streaks, the lighter the body. After you’ve taken a bit of time to visually get to know your wine, it’s time for phase two: smelling the wine. Smelling the Wine Place your nose of the rim of the glass and breathe in lightly. You want to smell for anything that may seem a bit off. If the wine smells a bit odd, take a look at the cork… If it looks like the cork has absorbed wine, and the wine climbed up ¾ of the cork, the wine may have been exposed to air while in storage. If it smells good, swirl the wine around gently (gentle enough so that you don’t fling wine on yourself or others). This swirling opens up the wine’s aromas. Now that you’ve swirled the wine a bit, place your nose over the rim and breathe in lightly again. This second smell test can give you a hint of the wine’s flavor without actually sipping it. Discuss your thoughts on and the hints you think you may be detecting, and remember—no wrong answers! It’s fun to guess and hear what your friends guess. After you’ve discussed the aromas, it’s time to move on to actually tasting the wine. Tasting the Wine Go ahead and take a sip… or even better, take a slurp. It’s not rude—in fact, slurping can help release all of the wine’s flavors onto your tongue so you get maximum taste. Don’t swallow the wine right away. Let it sit on your tongue for a moment so you can take it all in. Gently swirl the wine around. When you’ve enjoyed the sip long enough, go ahead and swallow the

2. wine. If you find yourself puckering, you’re enjoying a drier wine; if you’re salivating you’re enjoying a wine with a crisp and refreshing acidity. Simply sit back, relax, and drink the rest of your glass this way… and be sure to enjoy it! If you live in the Austin, TX area and want to learn about (and enjoy!) wines from around the world, visit Departure Lounge during the weekly Wine Education Series Event (click the link for date & time information). You’ll get to learn about and enjoy 3 new wines each week, hang with your friends and meet new people at one of Austin’s premier wine bars!