🍷 Wine tasting

Wine tasting is careful sampling. First you look at the colour and clarity. Then you smell, first at rest, then after swirling the wine in the glass. Then you take a sip, hold the wine in the mouth and assess it. Finally you notice how long the aftertaste lasts.

What is assessed? The aroma, taste, acidity, tannins, strength and balance of the wine, that is, how all these parts fit together. A wine is considered good when nothing sticks out: neither acid, nor alcohol, nor sugar. To describe smells, the aroma wheel is used, a chart that divides aromas into groups such as fruit, flowers and spices.

There are different kinds of tastings. In a blind tasting the bottles are hidden so that only the wine is judged. Professionals spit the wine into a spittoon so they can taste many samples and stay sober. A standard ISO glass is used for tasting.

Sommeliers and winemakers do this. Tasting is part of quality control: by taste they check that the wine is right and free of faults. For an ordinary person it is enough to find out what they like.