It’s a Saturday afternoon in the spring. Your group of friends have been planning to go wine tasting for a while, but now the day has arrived. Where do you start? How do you wine taste? The act of wine tasting and learning how to do it properly can lead you to expand your palette and find exactly the type you enjoy. We all know the names of wine, but what actually makes them distinct? It is essential to take it slow, to enjoy the wines and compare them, rather than drinking by the glass.

Follow these steps to elevate your wine tasting experience:

Sight

• Hue and Intensity: Look at the wine itself, what is the most prominent color?

Swirl

• The Gibbs-Marangoni Effect is the visible marks (“legs”) of the wine falling down on the interior sides of the glass after swirling. This indicates the presence of alcohol is the wine, and the increase of tearing shows the alcohol content

Smell

• Breathe deeply through your nose. Identify the fruit and condition of the fruit in the wine by smelling the product. Can you smell the aromas? Oaky wine will give off the scents of vanilla, coconut, allspice, chocolate, cola, cedar, or cigar. An oaky wine will have been typically aged in oak barrels. The location of where the grapes were grown can be sensed in an earthy wine. Loam, forest soil, or mushroom aromas will be organic, as slate, rocks, or dried clay aromas will be inorganic.

Sip

• Sweetness in wine is from grape sugars, added before or after fermentation. Tannin is an antioxidant that tastes bitter and gives a drying sensation. A high tannin level is the wine can be sensed on the inside of the lip after sipping the wine. Acidity is the level of sourness in the wine which will make the mouth water. A round wine will have low acidity, not changing the balance in the mouth. Ask yourself is the wine light-, medium-, or full-bodied. Are there any flavors you can identify while tasting the wine that you didn’t identify in the aromas?

Savor

• Savor the sip from your glass and try to recognize lingering flavors. What do you taste? Is your mouth left dry or watery?

Now, walk right into the winery and choose your flight. With this list, you can feel confident and receive the most out of the experience. Cheers!