Wine Tasting Made Easy

Are you curious about wine? If you are, then you’re most likely just as curious about wine tasting. To help you truly experience the flavor of a wine, it’s important to know that you must slow down and pay close attention to your sense of sight, smell, and of course taste. To help you, we’ve created a great and simple list of basic wine tasting steps.

How to Taste Wine

1. Hold your wine glass by its stem. Holding a wine glass by its bowl will quickly warm the wine from the heat of your hand.

2. For an individual wine tasting, about an inch or less of wine should be poured into a glass at a time. Tastings should begin with the lightest of white wines. Eventually, move onto the heaviest red wines.

3. Inspect the wine’s color and clarity. By tilting your wine glass away from you, examine the wines color from the rim edges to the middle of the glass. While you do this, it is important to note that some sort of white background like a napkin, tablecloth, paper, etc…

4. While still examining your wine, inspect your wine’s opacity.

5. Now it’s time to smell your wine. First, swirl your glass for about 10 to 15 seconds. Next, take a quick whiff of your wine for your first impression. After your first sniff, place your nose into the wine glass and intensely inhale through your nose. Use your second impression to take note of all the individual scents you can smell in the wine’s aroma. Swirl again to mix the aromas and sniff again.

6. Finally take a small taste. Remember not to swallow it; just let it swirl around in your mouth. Take note of its alcohol content, tannin levels, acidity and residual sugar. In addition, take note of the wines actual flavor profile. Lastly, take note of how long the wines flavor impression lasts after it has been swallowed. What are your likes and dislikes?

7. Don’t feel the need to consume all of your wine. Simply discard the wine into the discard bucket when you are finished.

8. If it is available, rinse your glass with water to keep the palate clean.

The next time you are in the Temecula area, be sure to take the time to enjoy a delectable Temecula wine tasting at a fine Temecula winery like Ponte Winery.