by Jenny Bug

Created on: February 07, 2009   Last Updated: February 09, 2009

To taste wine all you need is a mouth, a nose and a brain. If you have these bases covered you're ready to begin exploring the wondrous world of wine tasting. Even if you have never tasted wine before you will find it to be an exciting experience once you learn to really taste it.

People drink beverages every day, tasting them as they pass through their mouths. However, when it comes to wine, drinking and tasting are not synonymous. There is much more going on in a mouthful of wine than a mouthful of soda. Wines have lots of different flavors going on at the same time and all giving different sensations.

If you gulp wine down as you might a soda or other beverage you miss a lot. To taste wine you need to slowly and attentively take your time to capture all it's nuances. So slow down and pay attention.

Take time to look at your wine. Tilt your half-full glass away from you against a white background. Notice how dark or pale the wine is in your glass. Eventually you will begin to notice differences in wines.

Now it's time to swirl and sniff. You can let your imagination run wild. Who's to say you don't get a whiff of blackberries in your glass of wine.

Keeping your glass on the table rotate it so that the wine swirls around inside your glass. This will mix air with the wine. As you swirl, the aromas in the wine vaporize and you can smell them. Quickly bring the wine as close to your nose as you can without dipping the end of your nose in the wine and smell it.

Use free association now, is the aroma fresh, fruity, earthy. Is it light or intense? Your nose tires quickly but also recovers quickly, so relax and try it again.

Now that you've looked at your wine and smelled it, it's finally time to taste it. This is when you notice grown women and men making strange faces, gurgling and sloshing the wine around in their mouths with intense expressions of concentrations on their faces.

Take a medium-size sip of the wine into your mouth and hold it. Draw in some air and let it pass over your tongue and wine. Swish it around a bit then swallow. As you swish the wine around in your mouth it allows time for your brain to figure out what the tongue is tasting and makes sense of it.

The first sensation your brain will register is sweetness, as it is the first place the wine hits on your tongue. Then comes the acidity (what some people call sourness), then the bitterness. While your brain is processing all these tastes sensations you can get a feel of how the wine feels in your mouth.

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