Tasting wine is what we'll be looking at in this part of our wine 101 guide...
Aroma, taste, and finish are the three stages of tasting wine. We'll look at each of those individually.
Swirling your wine in your glass is the first step to smelling it; this process exposes the most amount of the wine to air, which helps release its aromas. To swirl effectively, don't fill the glass too full - in fact less than half full is recommended. While swirling, put your glass up to your nose and inhale, thinking about what kinds of aromas you're experiencing. Young wines will have primary aromas, relating to the grape variety (such smells are often fruit related). As wines age more secondary aromas develop, which may be more earthy or animalistic. Remember that a wines aromas can take on many different forms, and very rarely will it simply smell of grapes.
When you taste wine, it's important to realize that little of the flavor that can be sensed actually involves the tongue. Your upper airways are filled with the aroma of wine when it is in your mouth, and it is your nasal receptors, not your taste buds, that do most of the 'tasting'. So, breathe in and out through your nose whilst the wine is in your mouth; paying attention to the way the wine changes as you hold it there. Your first impressions on taking the wine into your mouth may be referred to as the fore-palate, which are followed by the mid-palate and the end-palate. Each of these will be different, so look out for the changes in taste.
When you swallow wine, you experience the finish. It will often be different to how the wine came across on the palate. The flavors may linger for a while on the palate after the wine has been swallowed, and this is referred to as the length. The more length a wine has, the more time you have to enjoy it, and it's probably true to say that such wines are generally of better quality.
