The Tasting Process

Quite a few of my friends both in Saskatchewan and in British Columbia drink wine, but not many of them actually 'taste' wine. I'm going to go through the process of wine tasting. As silly as it may seem, it can be a lot of fun, and it makes drinking the wine that much more enjoyable.

You should have large wine glasses, but any standard wine glass will do.

1st: You lift your glass up so thats its directly across from your nose. Have a good look at the colour of the wine, try holding it up to a light coloured background so you can really see through the glass. Is it a rich ruby red, or a pale dull red with almost a yellowish tinge? The colour of the wine will give you a hint as to the age of the wine. For reds, as they age, they become lighter in colour. When a white wine ages it becomes darker. If its a white is it almost water clear, or a rich golden yellow?

2nd: The second part of the tasting is the swirl. I usually set the glass down on a table or other flat surface like a counter, and holding the glass by the stem putting the slightest bit of pressure start circling the glass on the table or counter to create a sort of whirlpool with the wine in the glass. Don't be shy, really give it a good swirl. The purpose of this is to 'release the bouquet' when you swirl, the wine coats the glass to release the smell of the wine. You'll notice little drops of wine either slowly, or quickly making their way into the glass. These are called 'legs', some people call them 'tears', I call them legs. If the legs are slow moving and thick, they are said to be 'long legs'. The longer the legs the higher the alcohol content(sweeter wines have long legs).

3rd: The smelling of the wine is my favourite part of the tasting. After the look, and the swirl, I like to smell the wine while it is still circling the bowl of the glass from swirl. Put your nose right over the glass and take a deep breath in through your nose. Again don't be shy about this, smelling the wine, in my opinion, makes the wine taste that much better. As you all know, the VAST majority of your taste comes through your sniffer. Its difficult at first to determine what exactly it is that your smelling, but you should be able to detect a couple of key aromas. Does your red wine have 'earthy'(read:dirt) smells? or does it smell like rich ripe fruit, like cherries, or blackberries? Take a couple good whiffs before you move onto the next step.

4th: Last but not least, the grand finale of the tasting process is to actually taste the wine. After the big sniff of the wine, you tilt the glass and make sure to get a good mouthful. Roll the

wine around on your tongue and tilt your head back just slightly to let the wine cover all of your tastebuds. This is where you feel the 'weight' of the wine. To give you an easy comparison, think of milk, Skim milk would be 'light bodied', 2% milk would be 'medium bodied', and homogenized would be 'full bodied'. Wines have similar weight minus the creaminess of milk.
While the wine is still in your mouth, tilt your head back and opening your mouth slightly, suck a little bit of air onto your 'palette' to get oxygen on the wine. This will bring out the full flavours of the wine. Now swallow the wine and wait for the finish. The finish is the after taste that, if its a good wine, should linger. Often crappy wines will have NO finish at all, and that is just simply unacceptable!

Thats it for the tasting process! Enjoy, and don't worry about looking silly, try it at home first with a couple friends before you attempt it at a restaurant. It really becomes a habit, you'll find yourself swirling all kinds of drinks, I do it with pretty much everything, without even thinking about it, but thats because I'm a big wine nerd! Don't laugh, you may be a wine nerd one day too!