Learning to distinguish aromas at a wine tasting will help you determine characteristics of various wines. Have you ever seen a person at a wine tasting event take their glass, swirl and sniff the wine prior to sipping it? Well, that is how aromas are released in a wine in order for you to be able to determine the characteristics of the wine.
You might say you can taste wine with your nose, not just with your tongue, as the nose imparts much of the information that goes into determining taste. Before even tasting a wine, a wine expert will take a deep whiff to get a first impression of what they are about to taste. This exposes your tongue to more taste sensations when you finally sip the wine.
To understand how smell affects what you taste, try holding your nose when you eat or drink something that has noticeable aromas. You will find it difficult to pick out tastes without the aid of your nose. Sniffing a wine will impart much more info rather than hurrying through a wine tasting. This will help you learn wine better in the long run.
Did you know your taste buds recycle every two weeks? Yet, while this slows down as you age it makes someone who is older more tolerant of extremes. Meaning, they just aren't as susceptible to as much flavor. In that instance, it's a good idea to keep a wine tasting journal to keep track of wine aromas in a wine tasting should you notice your favorite wine changing over the ages.
The younger you are the more susceptible to flavors in a wine you are, which is why so many people new to wine choose a wine for beginners, such as a sweet wine, as they cannot tolerate heavy tannins and acidity. When you bite into food, aromas are released and they travel to your nose where more flavors are sent to the brain to be identified.
Learning to distinguish aromas at a wine tasting event differs among the genders with women having a more highly developed sense of smell. Studies have shown that women tend to join more wine clubs and attend more wine tastings as a result, because they are more susceptible to aromas and can more readily decide which wines they are partial to.
Once you take the wine into your mouth you should slurp it and get air into your mouth to release even more aromas. Wine tasters will hold a wine in their mouths for several seconds to let it work their taste buds so as to get maximum exposure to aromas. Different parts of the tongue taste the different flavors: salty, sweet, bitter and sour. Sloshing the wine around your mouth long enough will guarantee all parts of the tongue are activated.
With enough practice and attendance to as many wine tasting events as you can take part in you will develop a keen sense of determining wine aromas. Tasting notes and keeping a wine journal will also help. Eventually you will be able to decipher layers of flavors in wines and will be on your way to becoming a wine expert yourself in learning to distinguish aromas at a wine tasting.