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The 4 S’s of Wine
See
What does the wine look like? What color is it EXACTLY. Can’t tell? Hold it up to the light.
Can you see through the wine or is it opaque?
White Wine: Is it pale straw or deep yellow?
Red Wine: Is it brick red or deep purple?
The color is going to tell you a lot about what you’re going to drink, so start training your eyes as well as your taste buds.
Swirl
Ever wonder why all the wine experts swirl wine? It’s not to be snobby… it’s to help the alcohol evaporate, which opens the flavor of the wine. If you smell a wine when you have first poured it, it will have a faint aroma, but once you swirl it, the smell intensifies. Think of a rosebud opening into a fragrant flower with the gentle swirling of the wine in your glass.
Click here to see a video explanation of Why You Should Swirl Wine
Smell
Your tongue can only perceive five flavors, but your nose can identify over 10,000! This is why nothing tastes good when you have a cold. When you drink wine, you naturally smell it as you drink it, but learning to smell it “on purpose” is an important part of Wine Tasting 101.
Sip
When you sip, you learn about:
The Body: How heavy is it on your tongue? Is it light like water or heavy like milk?
The Flavor: Is it fruity or dusty? Does it taste like apples or vanilla? Is it acidic?
Quality: Does the flavor linger in your mouth or did it disappear quickly. Did it wow you or were you underwhelmed? Did you like it?
