Tasting Step #3: Finally, We Drink!

We've observed the wine's color.
We're swirled and sniffed for the nose.
At last, we get to drink!

Their are 3 distinct characteristics of a wine to be gleaned by your mouth.

• Mouth Feel (Do the tannins dry the mouth? Is the wine thick and heavy?)
• Flavor (Blackberry? Leather? Black Pepper? Citrus?)
• Finish (How long do the flavors and mouth feel last, and how do they change as they fade?)

Take a generous sip, large enough enveloping your mouth with the taste, but don't get carried away. We aren't gargling mouthwash, here. Savor the different flavors and move the wine around gently inside you mouth so that all of your taste buds are exposed to the wine. Swallow the wine only when you feel you have experienced the full flavors and feel of the wine. Next, pay attention to the aftertaste, or "finish", of the wine. It should linger and remain enjoyable as it fades, often changing quite a bit in both mouth feel and flavor compared to your initial impressions before swallowing.

That's it. You've fully tasted a wine, using your senses of smell, taste, and feel together to create a complex picture of the wine. Don't worry if you taste blackberry, while everyone around you detects strawberry. Wine is very subjective, with our impressions changing on everything from our own physiology to what we've eaten for lunch.

What's most important is that YOU have a tool set to find your own perfect wine. It's out there, but lucky for us all...it takes a lot of trial and error to find it!

For further tasting information, please refer to the tagging map under "Tasting Steps"