Wine tasting and attending a wine tasting party, contrary to popular belief, does not involve a lot of sipping, swishing and swallowing. While there is a definite art to wine tasting and many different wine-tasting forms, the popular theory of sipping and the like could not be farther from reality. It does, however, take years of practice to master the technique.
The art of wine tasting is used to distinguish fine wines and relies on a trained palate, often acquired over many years. If stored properly and aged correctly, wine can be an exquisite experience.
Wine tasting is totally dependent upon our sense of smell with more than 3/4 of the impact on our senses tied to the smell prior to even beginning to taste it. Most wine lovers will retell the experiencing of a fine wine and speak more of the wonderful aroma and then the taste. After the smell, it becomes the personal preference of the wine taster.
Proper wine tasting is initiated with the swishing that is most familiar to novices. The purpose of this activity is to circulate the taste of the wine by moving it between the front and back areas of the mouth in order to reach the taste buds contained in the tongue.
Taste buds do not necessarily have a noted taste factor, but they are capable of properly identifying food and beverages that are sweet, salty, and bitter with no problems at all. Therefore, the process of swishing is more about giving the senses an opportunity to extract the aromatic flavors in the wine being tested.
Understanding the fundamentals of swishing allows the connoisseur to move on to the three basic principles of the art of judging a fine wine - observing, smelling, and finally tasting.
Upon pouring the wine into a crystal clear glass, the first step is to take a considered look at the sampling. This is not a step to be rushed as a great deal can be ascertained during this step. Despite their name, white wines are actually not white as much as they are golden, pale brown or with a slight tinge of green. On the other hand, red wine is typically a dark pink hue or leaning toward dark brown in color.
The second step is observation. It is all about the nose and what the wine smells like. This is accomplished through two steps: taking a brief whiff of the wine to get a general idea and then taking a deep, extended inhalation in order to get the full aroma of the beverage.
Experts will generally pause at this point to take in and process what they have learned so far about the wine. They will want to reflect on the total experience with the wine.
In the end, the wine connoisseur will be ready to start tasting the wine, first by taking a sip then swishing it around to detect both the bold and subtle flavor in the sample. It is only after this step is accomplished will the wine taster fully savor the flavor and swallow the sip taken.
As it is with any skill, practice is part of the overall wine tasting methodology. While wine tasting is considered a skill that can be learned, wine experts will tell you that it is really more of an art.
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