Tasting 1: the best way to learn

So, how do you learn about wine tasting? Ideally, you should do this in a classroom context - this is for the very simple reason that tasting is a practical topic. You could, theoretically, learn about tasting purely by reading books or watching videos on the internet but, in reality, nothing beats tasting the exact same glass with a bunch of other students.

Listening to others is extremely helpful - there are things I now find easily in a glass of wine that I couldn't identify until I heard a fellow student explaining their tasting.

When tasting it is best to spend more and taste less; that is, buy the best bottle you can afford. While a good understanding of high-volume, low-price wines is important, from a novice student's point of view you will learn more from a better wine than from a lesser wine.

Tasting 2: the jelly bean test

Let's have some fun with tasting - go out and buy some Jelly Bellies, the best jelly beans you can buy. These can be bought in a few good shops in Ireland but also online from, yes, you've guessed it, the Jelly Belly Store! Now, randomly pick one from the bag and, at the same time, pinch your nose tightly.

Start eating the Jelly Belly - you should notice that it's sweet and slightly acidic (sour), but that's about all. You might be a little surprised at how little flavour there is. Before you finish chewing, let go of your nose - what happens?

Did you say "Wow!"? Most people do as there is an explosion of flavour - cherry or apple or lime or coconut or of any of the amazing range Jelly Bellies offer. So, of what did your Jelly Belly taste?

Tasting 3: all about flavour

If you answered that question with any of cherry or apple or lime or coconut or of any of the amazing range Jelly Bellies offer, then you're dead wrong!

That's right - you're so wrong. Think about it - when you were chewing the Jelly Belly with your nose pinched tight all you could taste was sugar and acid. What you sensed or experienced after letting go of your nose was NOT taste but FLAVOUR. 

Flavour = smell: never forget this simple fact. This is why your nose does so much work when tasting wine. This does not mean that simply smelling a wine is all you have to do - oh no! But it begins to explain why your sense of smell, so little used in normal day-to-day life, is very important for wine tasters.

But, if flavour = smell then what can we actually taste?

Tasting 4: matters of taste

You probably think that you can taste lots of things with your sense of taste but, in fact, you can only taste 5 - sweet, sour (acid), bitter, salt and umami. Um...what? Umami is the taste of "savouriness" and is the reason why glutamates (e.g. sun-dried tomatoes) are so important in food.

Your taste receptors can sense all of these to differing degrees but you cannot taste flavour, as we discovered in the last lesson. So, why do we think we can taste flavours - why is it that, when chewing an apple, we can taste apple?

Well, there is a passageway that runs from the back of your mouth to your nose (the retronasal passageway!!!) and, as you eat a food, the volatile compounds that make up its flavour are released and sensed by the nose via the retronasal passageway.

Hence, when you have a cold, food doesn't taste so good!

Tasting 5: swish and swirl

So, what can we find when we taste a wine? Is all that swishing and swirling, slurping and spitting really useful? Or is it a bit like the relationship between Strictly Come Dancing and what you do in the disco of a Saturday night? Hmmm, could be showing my age there...

Well it is useful and you can tell a lot from tasting a wine. In less than two hours I can teach you to recognise things such as grape variety, climate, winemaking techniques (you can even identify the likely fermentation temperature!). With time, you can even remember how to do all these things every time you taste!!

An expert taster can tell a lot but, you might well wonder, do you need to know that much? Probably not, to be fair, but the more you know and understand the better able to are to assess a wine to whatever criteria you choose to set for it.

Tasting 6: how to taste

To taste you do four things - look at the wine, smell the wine, taste the wine (even though we now know that's the wrong term to use) and come to a conclusion about the wine.

Looking at the wine tells you very little when you're a novice, even if some wines can have attractive colours. Smelling it, however, can tell you a lot, particularly if the wine is faulty or not. You can also identify grape variety, climate, possible origin, winemaking and age.

Tasting it tells you a lot about how good it is - quality is ALWAYS assessed on palate. You can confirm ideas about grape variety, climate etc as well as judging how good it is now and, crucially, how good it might be in some years' time.

You come to a conclusion which assesses as fairly as possible the quality and development of the wine.

Tasting 7: let's look

Looking at a wine can tell you a lot - but you really do need to know your stuff! The colour of wine comes, essentially, from compounds found in and near the skins of the grape; most grapes have colourless flesh. Consequently, white wines have much less depth of coulr than reds as the skins are rarely used in winemaking for whites.

Colour depth can be influenced by the grape used (shiraz has more colour components than most, pinot noir has less then most), the climate in which the grapes ripened (warmer giving more colour), the age of the wine (reds and whites change as they age) but also by obscure things such as the pH of wine!

With white wines, they start as pale, slightly yellow and, as they age, develop a deeper yellow colour; if brown, they are (usually) too old. Red wines start as deep black/purple, lighten to ruby then gradually fade to garnet and, again, if brown, are too old.

Tasting 8: sniffing around

The aromatics in a wine are hugely important - but what can we learn from them? Well, many grapes have characteristic aromas which can be detected in the wine they make. The way in which the grapes were grown as well as the general climate conditions also alter these aromas. Winemaking can add and change the aromatics and, finally, age affects them as well.

Young wines generally have a fresh, lively fruity character - usually the fruit matches the wine colour. As white wines age, they lose this fruitiness becoming nutty. Red wines, on the other hand, change from fresh fruit to dried fruits such as figs, prunes and so on.

Green flavours usually mean unripeness and can reflect both climate and growing conditions; warm climates give riper, even jammy flavours. The use of new oak in winemaking adds spice and vanilla flavours while the fermentation temperature also affects the wine with lower being fruitier.

Tasting 9: mouthing off

Using the palate is the most important part of tasting but recall that we use our sense of smell every bit as much as our sense of taste, and the sense of touch also comes into play. Taste matters when you start and when you finish - at the start you can usually tell if a wine is dry or sweet. Acidity is sensed by the mouthwatering effect it has but bear in mind that these two can easily balance each other making life tricky!

While the wine is in your mouth you swirl it around and slurp air in - this releases the aromatics for your sense of smell so you can taste the flavour of the wine. Touch plays a part in sensing the "mouthfeel" and body of the wine - big and smooth or thin and harsh? Then, you spit out the wine and note the length of time the wine's flavour lasts.

You can also sense alcohol through a warm feeling in your throat and sweetness, acidy and/or tannins can become more evident at this stage.

Tasting 10: conclusions

Once you've done all of this you come to various conclusions about the wine - is it good and, if so, how good? How has it developed - over the hill or hasn't even got started? 

These are all interesting questions and it is important to understand that, if you're not asking a question of a wine then you're not tasting - you're drinking!

So, the best conclusion, if you've rad this far is to take a class or a course - so get in touch with This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and arrange right now!!