Learn the Art of Wine Tasting

The more you know about a subject, the more you enjoy it. While going to a restaurant for enjoying a glass of wine, you should have the sense of taste, so that you may recognize the aromas and flavor of some of the best wines. This helps in to acknowledge and appreciate a particular wine or identify disproportions in it, if any. A smart wine drinker relies on his palate rather than the wine's packaging and its price.

For a group wine tasting, a dining table must be provided where transparent glasses should be kept so that the color of the wine be identified without much difficulty. Amount of wine should be congruent to a third of the glass. You may too provide a bucket for people who would like to spit wine, in spite of drinking it, to avoid alcoholic effect.

Some basic rules while tasting:

1. Do not wet your throat by water after a drink (until you become thirsty). It may leave your throat with a taste of chlorine. When you are having a wine which has a different color as compared to the previous one, you may wash your glass with little water.

2. Do not hold the bowl of the glass; it will restrain you from seeing the color of the wine properly. Hold it by the stem or the foot so that you may have a clear vision of it. It will also prevent heating of the wine from your grip.

3. Note your own inferences and observations silently. You may share and discuss them later with your other participating friends to come to a conclusion.

4. Be confident while displaying your answers. Everyone has his/her own experience. If you are coming up with a unique and different recognition, it's good to have such an inference which no one else has noticed.

Here are the basic steps of tasting wine:

1. Color of the wine
The darkness and oldness of the wine go hand in hand. If wine is darker in color, it means it's older too. Intensity or the concentration is more in a quality wine.

2. Smell of the wine
The quality wine is more aromatic. The better the aroma of the wine, the better it is.

3. Taste of the wine
The taste of the quality wine is balanced. No single taste weighs upon others, instead all tastes go together.

4. Evaluation
The longer the taste of aroma persists in the mouth after you have drunk the wine; the better is the quality of wine. 4-6 seconds persistence comes under medium range. 7-12 seconds persistence is considered to be longer than usual.