Learn Wine Tasting For Beginners

Learning To Distinguish Aromas At A Wine Tasting

2009-04-22T14:44:00.000-07:00

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.

Learn Wine Tasting For Beginners

2009-02-27T13:53:00.000-08:00

Learn About The Wine Tasting Experience

Some Wine Tasting For Beginners

With regards to wine tasting for beginners I wouldn't go so far as to say it's important to learn about wine tastings themselves, but to learn to enjoy the wine tasting experience as a whole. Unless of course you want to host a wine tasting party. What prompted me to learn about wine tastings though was the fact that I was so ignorant to the whole process of drinking wine in the first place. I mean, I've loved wine from the very start. I would happen into a wine shop in my neighborhood and listen to the guy pouring tiny sips into these deep wine glasses and mentioning nose and bouquet and finish and it kind of made me feel left out of the fun. So I would say it's not really important to learn about wine tastings, but it is important to understand the wine tasting experience.

As I said, my involvement with wine tasting was based purely on my having fun drinking wine and wanting to know more. Was I scared going into these tastings not knowing a thing about wine? Not really scared, but intimidated. The people that go to wine tastings can seem wine savvy and a little snobby with their questions that yes, it can be a little intimidating if you don't know what they mean when they talk about the leathery notes of Cabernet or characteristic differences of the two banks at a Bordeaux wine tasting. I know I had a "what the hell" look on my face when I first heard it. Leathery wine? Wine in a bank? What does it mean? I had to know.

If you want to learn about wine tasting and you're feeling a little intimidated by it, then find a free wine tasting to go to. Local wine shops have them every Friday. At a free wine tasting you are less likely to be around experienced wine drinkers. Most likely it will be people from the neighborhood with as many questions as you. In fact I bet if no one asks a single question that every person there has no idea what they were doing and are just as lost as you. Then you can work the crowd and ask them questions instead of the host. If they don't know the answer then you might not feel that intimidation.

And the more wine tasting events you attend the more you will learn and the faster you will pick up new information. It's all about going to as many wine tastings as you can and tasting as many different wines as you can. With a little knowledge here and there you won't care who is in the crowd when you can decipher aromas like lemon grass and quince.

There are wine tasting courses available as well if you want to learn about wine tasting and the intricacies of the senses. I can tell you now the only real senses you have to worry about are smell and taste. Nothing else matters. You can't really tell anything about a wine by looking at it. I mean, you can pick out some very basic details but the real information comes from sniffing the wine and tasting the wine. wine tasting for beginners classes will teach you the same thing.

What you do is once the host pours your taste you put the glass to your nose and take a big whiff and move the glass away. This gives you the first hint of what the wine is about. You can try to pick out aromas if you are familiar with them. Most wine varieties have the same basic characteristics so over time you'll be able to pick out the dark berry fruit aromas of Merlot and the citrus in Pinot Grigio.

Some people hold their wine tasting glasses up to the light. I know I said you can't tell anything by looking at the wine but some details are visible. The color of the wine, for example, can tell you about the climate it was produced in. A pale yellow or slightly green wine could mean it was produced in a cooler wine region, while deep yellow or gold could mean it came from a warmer region. You'll get a lot of this at a California wine tasting. It's a temperate region for the most part. Not like Germany where Rieslings are made and the weather is usually near freezing come time for production. Overall you won't really know what kind of wine it is just by looking at it, but trying to pick out these details will help you discern characteristics more easily over time.

After you're initial sniff, you can take the rest of the wine and swirl it in your wine tasting glass to aerate it. This opens the wine and lets more of the aromas escape. Once you give it a good swirl, and I would several for seconds around the glass, taste it and hold it in your mouth. Don't swallow yet because now you want to experience the body of the wine. This is where you swish it around loudly and suck air into your mouth to help open it up more. It sounds a little gross hearing everybody suck air with a mouth full of wine, but that's how you do it.

While the wine dances around in your mouth try to pick out more flavors and aromas. Letting in air will bring out more details of the flavors of the wine. This is what make it fun to learn about wine tastings. All the things you would never do at a dinner party or social event like making sucking noises when tasting wine you can do at a free wine tasting or a wine tasting class. Especially in a wine tasting course. The instructor will drive it home to you that aerating the wine is the best way to know what aromas the wine holds and the best way to aerate it is to suck air into your mouth. No joke.

Then the last thing to do is swallow it. Enjoy it. But notice how it goes down. Is there an aftertaste or does it die as soon as you swallow? If it lingers in your mouth then it has a long finish. The longer it lingers, the longer the finish. Note the flavors on the back of your mouth. They can be quite different from what you noticed on the front of your palate. Basically you, and when I say you I mean humans in general, can determine four tastes: Sweet, sour, bitter and salty. Let's hope you never taste a salty wine, but chances are you will taste a sweet wine, a bitter wine and maybe even a sour wine.

If there are more wines to taste as usually there are, find some cheese or water to cleanse your palate before tasting the next wine. More than likely water will be available. Cheese is great for cleansing the palate because the proteins in it introduces saliva to your mouth which cleans you up well for the next taste.

Well I hope you enjoyed my rant. I think I've said enough on the matter and hopefully you realize whether it's a wine tasting for beginners or expert wine drinkers, it's the wine tasting experience that matters.

Learn The Basics Of A Wine Tasting

2009-02-24T17:25:00.000-08:00

How To Become A Wine Taster

Enjoying The Basics of Wine Tasting

I really enjoy wine tastings. For one thing I am very lucky to have a wine shop in my neighborhood that I can walk to every Friday for the weekly free wine tastings. I've been going ever since the store opened a few years ago. I still don't know the owner's name but that's because I haven't been able to talk to him. Usually the host is a wine vendor trying to sell a product or empty inventory of a particular vintage. This much I have learned.

Still over the few years that I have been attending his wine tasting events I have learned the basics of a wine tasting and I think you could benefit from this too. While every wine tasting has explored different wines the concepts are the same from one to the other. There might be little details that alter, something one host does that another doesn't, but the basics are the same. So let's explore them.

After you've been to a dozen or so wine tastings you will start to recognize certain qualities and be able to pick out characteristics of a wine. If you are new to wine tasting then don't fret. Everyone has to start somewhere. But being here to learn about wine tastings is already half the battle. Experience will be the other half and it won't take you long to pick up on the etiquette and quickly learn wine tasting for beginners.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm no wine snob and half the stuff I've seen people gathered at a wine tasting party do is laughable but if you at least know what to expect you'll have a better appreciation for what you are experiencing.

The first thing to do is make sure you're free of any influencing tastes. Spit out your gum well in advance. Don't have something that's going to mask the flavors of the wine prior to showing up. If it's available find some cheese or crackers and water to cleanse your palate. You want to be as pure going into this as possible so that your taste buds can easily detect what the wine is like. Remember, your taste buds can only distinguish between salty, sour, bitter and sweet. That's not much so it's really easy to lose the wine to other influences.

Most of taste relies on smell believe it or not. Think about how having a cold affects what you eat. You just can't taste anything when you have a stuffy nose. It's the same for perfumes. Don't wear anything that has a scent. Not only for your sake but for the folks attending the wine tasting event as well. Take your wine tasting glass and swirl the wine. The wine tasting glasses are usually smaller than normal glasses. They hold about an ounce typically. Just enough for a taste. Swirling opens the wine so that the aromas are released. Once you have finished swirling, take a whiff. Get a nose full of the wine.

After you've done that, take a look at your glass and examine the wine you are about to taste. Your host should have the wine glasses out on a white table cloth if possible. This allows a better view of the color of the wine. Not that you'll get 100% of the details from looking at the wine but you can determine a few factors like age possibly and viscosity. Swirling gives you a great look at the viscosity of the wine. You've heard of legs. That relates to the alcohol content of the wine.

The higher the alcohol content the more "legs" a wine has. A lot of people think the more legs a wine has the better quality the wine. Legs have nothing to do with the quality. There are many outstanding Italian wines that have very few legs at all. That's because Italian wines are geared towards complimenting food and have typically have lower alcohol levels. If you get a chance to go to an Italian wine tasting don't miss out.

After you've smelled the wine and swirled it and have taken a moment to examine it, smell it again. It's bound to have opened up some since your initial whiff. Now really take it in. Try to pick out some aromas characteristic of the wine you're tasting. If you don't know what the wine is supposed to smell like, just see what you can determine on your own. There is no right or wrong answer. The host usually guides you through the tasting and will help you pick out flavors and aromas, but I try to beat him to the chase. I'm turning into a wine geek like that.

Once you've picked out all the aromas you can from sniffing it, taste the wine. Swish it around your mouth. Breathe some air into your mouth to help it open more. Don't swallow yet, just move it around your mouth. Notice your initial response as the wine hits your tongue. Did you get an alcohol taste? Was it sweet? Did it make you pucker? These are things that usually happen at first taste. Alcohol content will be noticeable right off the bat if it is high. Before it even hits your tongue you can sometimes smell the alcohol. You'll get an almost burning sensation go up through your nose. If the wine made you pucker it has some noticeable acidity to it. This is normal with most white wines, but can happen in a few reds. If you got a chalky feeling in your mouth, that's from the tannins and the wine is considered dry.

The next thing to look for is flavor. All that swishing around in your mouth has opened up the wine enough to release aromas and you'll now be able to pick out flavors. You might get some berry flavors from red wine, some oak or leather, pepper or clove. These are only a few descriptors though. Don't look for these specific flavors in every red wine as each varietal has its own flavor descriptors. The host at your wine tasting event will explain the basics of a wine tasting with regards to descriptors. But again try to pick them out yourself.

The last part is to swallow. I know, you've heard you're supposed to spit, but really. Who does that? Have you seen a spit bucket? Do you really want to put your face near a bucket that twenty to thirty other people have spit in? I've done it once. And when something splashes back on you after all those people spat before, you quickly realize you'd rather swallow that little taste of wine. So after swallowing notice what you're left with. Do the flavors stick with you or do they quickly vanish. This is called the finish. The longer the flavors stay with you, the longer the finish is considered.

If you have the fortune of being at a wine tasting where there are wine tasting notes available, use them. These can help you pick out more flavors or you can just take a pen and note pad and take your own wine tasting notes. I take my own and I take a lot of notes on the wines I like. So that's it. This went on longer than I had anticipated but there you have it. There are usually several wines to taste at a wine tasting event so after the first one all you have to do to start the next one is to cleanse your palate with more cheese or crackers or water. Those are all the basics of a wine tasting that I can think of so use them and enjoy.

Keeping A Wine Tasting Journal

2009-02-24T13:30:00.000-08:00

The Joy Of Keeping Wine Notes

Why Keeping a Wine Tasting Journal Helps

Once you are comfortable attending your local free wine tastings you might want to get involved with keeping a wine tasting journal. I do. And it's become a great way to get to know wine from the notes I take at wine tastings. I still don't think of myself as a wine geek, but I do get excited when Friday comes along and I start thinking about the night's selections. You can use any notebook for your wine tasting journal or you might be able to find one at a bookstore. I know B&N has them near the front by the checkout. Sometimes you can find them with wine guides in it. Those really come in handy.

One of the benefits of keeping a wine tasting notes is that you will go to so many wine tasting events that it will get hard to remember what you've had. And if you find one you like, which you will, you're going to want to remember it and why you liked it. That's where your wine tasting journal comes in handy. It just enhances a wine tasting for beginners in my opinion. The best are the ones that come with label removers. You don't have to really take notes, just put the sticker on the label and peel it off. It sticks right to the page in your journal so you have all the information you need right there. You should jot down flavors though, just so you know what you liked about the wine.

Another thing you can do with your wine tasting journal is to ask the host what foods pair best with the wine. Write it down and the next time you're looking for a nice dinner wine you'll have your wine tasting notes right there for you. Can you tell I'm geeking out right now? It's Friday. About two hours before the tasting. I think it's Napa wine tasting night, too. I'm really into California wines at the moment. But let me say that I'm not such a wine geek that I take my wine tasting journal to restaurants. Not yet anyway. I keep it strictly for the wine tasting events at the little wine shop down the street from me.

One thing that I like to do is compare my wine tasting notes against the host's. I often find that I can pick out flavors that get missed in the prepared notes. Not that I am giving the host a hard time. I can't argue with a free wine tasting and I owe what I did learn about the basics of a wine tasting to the various hosts. But I do it to hone my wine tasting skills and keeping notes helps me personally. If you haven't do this yet I highly suggest it. I'm going to keep this shot because I have to get some things done before I leave but if you have time you should go out and get a wine tasting journal of your own.

Host Your Own Wine Tasting Parties

2009-02-23T17:48:00.000-08:00

Throw A Wine Tasting For Beginners

How To Host Your Own Wine Tasting Parties

The one thing I don't really like about wine tasting events in a public setting is how fast it goes. I have questions. And sometimes before I can get the host's attention we've moved on to the next wine. It depends on the host really. Some blaze through the tasting from pure nervousness. Others drift along to the point of lingering on a glass of wine for hours. That's the host I want at my wine tasting party, the one that leaves time for questions. Because I always have questions.

Yes, I'm that guy.

However, I've recently been able to host my own wine tasting parties. Like I've said before I've been attending wine tastings events for several years now. Not just at the little shop down the street, but all over town. That little wine shop is only three years old. I go to the owner's wine events now out of convenience. But it's really convenient to host your own wine tasting parties at your home.

It takes very little effort at planning the food and wine pairing, getting the right pairings down, and everyone can take their time, enjoy themselves and really learn about wine that way. And since it's at your house if someone has too much wine they can always stay until they feel better. And the best part: you don't have to drive yourself home from the wine tasting. You're already home.

Get a list of friends you know who would appreciate a home wine tasting. You only need to provide three or four wines and you can buy plastic wine tasting glasses at Party City. You should supply real wine glasses but if you are on a tight budget the plastic glasses work fine. Even better is to get your guests to bring their favorite bottle of wine they would like to taste with the others. You'll cut down on your costs and have even more selections to choose from. And one of the benefits of having the guest supply the wine for your tasting is they can act as host for their particular bottle.

One of the things I like to do since I have a lot of friends new to wine is host a wine tasting for beginners. That way they won’t feel intimidated by not knowing anything. Of course hosting a wine tasting this way means you are supplying the wines. And I rent the wine tasting glasses. But, like I said, the plastic ones work. It's just a great way to spend an evening with friends and you can invite as many or as few people over as makes you feel comfortable.

You'll need a few basics like water glasses for cleansing the palate. Cheeses you can cut into cubes and/or crackers. Chocolate is a great palate cleanser too. But anything light and not overpowering is perfect. I like to prepare wine tasting notes if I'm hosting the event. If others are bringing wines I give them a list of questions to help prepare them. Don't forget to have the guests bring their wine tasting journals so they can take notes on the wines.

The list can go on and on but basically you just want to imitate what you see at a public wine tasting event. The perk is that when you host your own wine tasting parties you can take your time and really get to know the wines.

Demystifying A Wine Tasting For Beginners

2009-02-23T15:48:00.000-08:00

Is The Wine Sweet, Dry or Tannic?

An Attempt At Demystifying A Wine Tasting For Beginners

This was one of my first problems when I first started drinking wine. Is it sweet, is it dry, what the heck are tannins? Since I've been attending the free wine tasting events at the wine shop down the street from me I have gained an immeasurable amount of wine knowledge. And one of the most common subjects that have risen from people at a wine tasting for beginners is the difference between sweet wine, dry wine and tannins. So let me break it down for you in case you have the same questions.

When the host pours wine into your wine tasting glasses and you take your first sip you are hit with a few sensations. What your tongue experiences at any time, not just at a wine tasting, is bitter, sweet, sour and salty. Now you won't find a salty wine, we hope at least, but you may experience sweet, sour or bitter, so to speak. All of these are tastes. I know this seems pretty obvious but these are the questions that arise at a wine tasting, for beginners or whomever, and you'd be surprised how you have to spell it out for some people.

So your taste buds taste sweet and maybe you'll get a bitter taste. Maybe a sour taste. However if you are new to wine tasting you might confuse this. More on sour and bitter later. But I think we can agree that sweet is an easy one to understand. You know as soon as it hits your tongue that you are drinking a sweet wine.

The one thing that people confuse is the difference between a sweet wine and a fruity wine. Let me confuse you a little more. Sweet is sweet. Sweet is not fruity. Fruity can be sweet, but when you use fruity to describe a wine what you are describing is the flavors of the fruit. You can taste bananas in some Chardonnay, but Chardonnay isn't a sweet wine. Chardonnay can be a dry wine however. And you can have a dry fruity wine. You can have a fruity wine that is sweet but sweet does not mean fruity. Are you confused yet?

Let's look at dry.

When a wine is considered dry it has been fully fermented. That means all the sugar in the wine has been converted to alcohol during the fermentation process of wine making. This is where sour can be confused with dry. Dry in relation to wine is the opposite of sweet. I know that you think of sweet and sour being opposites but we’re not talking General Tsao's chicken here. The absence of sugar in a wine makes it acidic. A wine high in acidity is considered dry. Dry can be the impression of sour, but you don't want to experience a sour wine. That would be a wine flaw, which is another topic completely. Sour can also be misconstrued with tart. There are tart wines and these wines are considered dry, more or less. So dry can be looked at as almost tart, but not sour. Acidity also brings out the fruit flavors of a wine, so that's how a dry wine can be fruity.

Did that confuse you? It sure did me the first time I had it explained at my first wine tasting for beginners. That's why I keep everything I learn in my wine tasting journal and I take it to every wine tasting event I go to. By the way if you haven't picked up something to write your wine tasting notes in, you should. It makes all the difference in the world when you have something to look back on as a refresher.

Now for tannins.

Tannins are the tiny compounds found in grape skins, seeds and stems. The stuff that makes your mouth feel chalky at a wine tasting. You can also get that feeling from wine aged in oak barrels. So basically tannins come from woody things. And skins. And seeds. Heh.

Tannin tastes bitter. It is an astringent. That means it dries out your tongue. That's the chalky feeling left in your mouth when you drink a tannic wine. People often confuse tannins with dryness because of astringency. Dry is a sensation. Astringency is an effect. See the difference? When someone wants a wine that isn't too dry they usually mean tannic.

So there it is. There is probably more that I could have gone over but I think I succeeded in the basics of demystifying a wine tasting for beginners in regards to sweet, dry and tannin.

Cheers.