Tasting – Step #1 – Look at your wine

First Step

The first step of tasting any glass of wine should be properly looking at the glass of wine!

The quality of a wine, sweetness level, alcohol content, age of a wine and a million other things can be told just be properly evaluating a glass of wine.

Too many people have complicated wine tasting and made it seem like it’s a different language. I am here to simplify it and make it more relevant to you.

Why? Because wine is meant to be enjoyed, not chugged. These three points will make you better at assessing the quality of a wine, better at blind tasting and help you with developing a credible opinion.

Three Things to look for

Color – The color will give you a hint as to the saturation and density of the wine. As you do this more often, you might even eventually be able to identify the wine by the grapes by the color and scent.

Clarity – Evaluating the wine’s clarity can tell you a couple things. It could be a hint that the wine had problems during the fermentation or it could be that it is an unfiltered wine. Most people tend to prefer a wine that is rather clear.

Legs – When you swirl a glass of wine around, it will eventually form legs. When the legs & tears start forming, the alcohol is starting to evaporate. Wines with good “legs” usually means that the wine has a higher alcohol content and hints at a bigger and bolder wine.

Why does it matter?

Why does any of this matter? This will help you pick out a good wine and develop your own opinion and preferences. Too many people complicate wine and do crazy things like spit it out (seriously, I am not gonna waste that gold). Drink what you like and enjoy!

Take a look at step #2 here!

Happy Wine-ing!!

-Jennifer