Wine Tasting 101

How to Approach a Wine Tasting

A wine tasting can sound intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. Approaching the tasting in four main steps – look, smell, taste, and think – can simplify the process and help you begin to identify a wine’s characteristics.

 

Look: See what you initially observe about the wine’s appearance before you taste it. Wines vary in color, opacity, and viscosity, and these factors can indicate the kind of grapes used, if the wine has been aged, and if it’s light, medium, or full-bodied . For wine beginners, just observe what you initially see in the glass, like the color and its depth.

Smell: When smelling wine, start with broad categories like fruit, spices, or florals. Then see if you can narrow it down further into specifics, like lemon, cinnamon, or rose. Are the aromas delicate or intense? Do you smell a couple different notes or many notes all at once?

Taste: Our taste buds categorize tastes into four distinct categories – bitter, sour, salty, and sweet. Start by taking a small sip of the wine and notice what immediately comes to mind.

Think: Start to make associations and develop a profile of the wine.

 

These four steps can help you determine specific characteristics within the wine. Along with these four steps, you can also determine a wine’s sweetness level on a scale from dry to sweet. The level of sweetness in a wine comes from the amount of residual sugar, which is the amount of sugar left over after the fermentation process along with any added sugars during the winemaking process.

Where a wine lands on the dry to sweet scale is determined by the amount of residual sugar, the taste, and also the mouthfeel – dry wines will leave your mouth feeling dry, while sweet wines will coat your mouth and leave a lingering sweetness after swallowing. The amount of residual sugar also affects the wine’s alcohol levels – wines with more residual sugar tend to have lower alcohol by volume (ABV). Wines such as brut Champagne, sauvignon blanc, cabernet sauvignon, and Bordeaux will often be on the dry side of the scale, while riesling, muscat, Lambrusco, and port wines are sweeter.

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Identifying Fruit Notes

 

Once you’ve mastered the four basic tasting steps and can determine a wine’s sweetness level, an additional way to develop wine tasting skills is to use the seven fruit cluster descriptions used by the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) to describe what you taste. These general fruit descriptors are a great starting point to understanding the notes you encounter when tasting, and can help you begin to determine your preferences.

 

 

 

White wine clusters:

 

1. Green fruit such as apple, pear, gooseberry, and grape. Chardonnay and muscat wines often have this cluster.

 

2. Citrus fruit like lemon, lime, grapefruit, and orange. This cluster is often tasted in sauvignon blanc, albariño, and pinot grigio.

 

3. Stone fruit, such as peach, apricot, and nectarine, is often present in rieslings and viogniers.

 

4. Tropical fruit such as mango, banana, lychee, and passionfruit. These flavors show up in Gewürztraminer, semillon, Marsanne, and some chardonnays.

 

Red wine clusters:

 

5. Red fruit like cherries, raspberries, and strawberries show up in pinot noir, sangiovese, and gamay wines.

 

6. Black fruit, such as blackberries, blue-berries, and blackcurrant, is present in cabernet sauvignon, tempranillo, merlot, Malbec, and syrah.

 

7. Dried fruit notes, such as raisins, prunes, and dates, often show up in red wines because of the aging process.

 

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While most wines have fruit-based notes, you will often taste other notes such as spices, minerals, herbs, and more. These notes result from the climate of the wine’s growing region, the winemaking process, or the aging process. As you continue to practice tasting wines, these elements may become more recognizable, and you may begin to associate them with specific wines or wine regions.

Wine Words

You’ll hear many of the same words used to describe the taste, texture, and making of a wine during a wine tasting.

Below are a few common terms to familiarize yourself with beforehand.

• Sommelier – A certified wine professional
• Breathing – Exposing wine to oxygen, which slightly changes the flavor profile (sometimes called aeration)
• On the nose – Used to describe the smell of the wine
• On the palate – Used to describe the taste and texture of the wine
• Tannins – Compounds in wine that leave a bitter, dry pucker in the mouth
• Finish – Textures and flavors that linger after you swallow
• Body – The weight and fullness of the wine in your mouth (either light, medium, or full-bodied)
• Mouthfeel – The feeling of the wine in your mouth, such as velvety, rough, or smooth
• Oaked/Unoaked – Wine is typically fermented and aged in oak barrels and will have notes of the oak, such as vanilla, coconut, or spices. Some wine is aged in stainless steel barrels to prevent these flavors.
• Terrior – The climate qualities of a specific wine-growing region such as dry, wet, or sandy, which influence the taste and smell of a wine

 

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Tasting Tip

Lauren Lamacchia, fine wine manager at Athens Distributing Company, shares her best tips for wine tasting like a pro along with some great selections for an at-home tasting.

“Take your time when tasting wine. Give it a swirl, smell it, then take a sip. I like to start with lighter wines and work up to bigger reds, with anything sweet at the end. Have some water and plain crackers between pours, and make a few notes on your favorites. No need to overthink the tasting notes. Just pay attention to what you like!”

Available locally, these four wine selections are great for developing your tasting skills while enjoying a fantastic glass of wine.

 

 

Lauren Lamacchia

Fine Wine Manager, Athens Distributing Company

 

 

 

Nicolas Feuillatte Champagne Millésime Brut 2015

This Champagne blends chardonnay, pinot meunier, and pinot nero grapes for a bright and fresh experience.

Tasting notes:

• Bronze in color
• Licorice and praline on the nose
• Fresh yellow fruit, nectarines, and nutty notes on the palate

 

 

 

Fontanafredda Derthona Timorasso

Timorasso is a grape native to Colli Tortonesi DOCG, located in the Langhe hills outside of Tortona, Italy.

Tasting notes:

• Straw yellow in color
• Exotic fruit on the nose
• Dried fruit, lime zest, almond, and honey notes on the palate

 

 

 

Black Stallion Gaspare Cabernet Sauvignon 

Black Stallion’s Gaspare Cabernet Sauvignon is a big, bold California red with intense yet approachable flavors.

Tasting notes:

• Complex, layered wine
• Oak and plum on the nose
• Black fruits, chocolate, leather, and berry notes on the palate

 

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Tablas Creek Patelin de Tablas Rosé

Tablas Creek’s rosé blend includes three red Rhone varietals grown in Paso Robles – grenache, mourvedre, and counoise – along with a small amount of vermentino, a white grape.

Tasting notes:

• Pale peach in color
• Nectarine, orange blossom, and pink grapefruit on the nose
• Apricot, strawberry, lemon drop, and watermelon notes on the palate