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Enjoying wine is a pleasure anyone can experience, whether you’re a keen wine lover or just starting to explore. Using our wine-tasting tips, you can get more from your wine and dive into its smells, tastes and how it feels.
Keep reading for advice on how to taste wine like a pro.
How to prep for wine tasting
Before you start tasting, there are a few things you’ll need:
Temperature: Serving your wine at the right temperature helps you get the best from its flavours and aromas. Each style of wine has its own recommended temperature range, so check what temperature best suits your wine and chill or let it rest as needed.
Let the wine breathe: Some wines, especially full-bodied reds, benefit from being decanted before tasting. Doing this aerates the wine – allowing oxygen in so the wine can ‘breathe’ and fully release its layers of complex aromas and flavours. Swirling wine in a glass does the same but on a smaller scale.
Lighting: Use natural light to see the wine’s colour, depth and clarity. If you can, use a setting with a white background – a piece of white paper or a white tablecloth – to help you see the wine’s colour better.
How to taste wine – the five S’s
The five S’s make up a simple step-by-step guide to best taste your wine:
See: Look at the appearance of the wine.
Swirl: Hold the glass by the stem and gently swirl the glass bowl to release the wine’s aromas.
Sniff: Place your nose just above the rim of the glass and breathe in the wine’s scent – you might be able to identify some distinct aromas.
Sip: Take a small sip of wine and hold it on your tongue to savour its flavours and pay attention to its texture, acidity and weight.
Savour: As you swallow, take a moment to focus on the lingering flavours and sensations.
Before tasting your wine...
Judge it's appearance
Unsurprisingly, a wine’s colour is usually the first thing you’ll notice when learning how to taste wine. Each style – red, rosé and white – comes in a range of colours and intensities, with each shade revealing something about the wine, from where it originated to how it was made. Red wines can range from light ruby red to dark plum shades, while white wines can vary from a pale straw colour with hints of green to a deep gold. Rosé wines can range from the palest blush pink to rich dark pink. The intensity of a wine’s colour can provide clues about its age; red wines tend to lighten and develop a brick-red colour as they age, while white wines often darken, developing amber or brown shades. Look at the wine’s clarity–whether it’s clear or cloudy. A clear wine suggests good filtration and winemaking techniques. However, sometimes, a cloudy appearance could indicate that the wine is aged or made in a natural style. Wine ‘legs’, or ‘tears’, are the streaks that run down the inside of the glass after you swirl it. It’s a common misconception that these ‘legs’ are linked to the quality of a wine. But the way legs form can give you an idea about the wine’s alcohol content and body. If a wine has a high alcohol level, the legs tend to run down slowly and are thicker, while low-alcohol wine legs are fewer and faster.
Give it a sniff
Did you know that approximately 80-90% of taste is actually smell? This is why it’s so important to take a moment and appreciate a wine’s aromas before taking a sip. Gently swirl the glass to release the wine’s aromas and lower your nose to the rim to take a quick series of short, sharp inhales. First, see if you can identify any of what we call the wine’s “primary aromas”. These come directly from the grape. Can you smell any fruity scents like citrus, berry, tropical or stone fruits? There may also be hints of blossom and herbs – think rose, jasmine, orange blossom, sage, thyme. There’s no limit on how many sniffs you can take to find your answers. Next, shift your attention to the “secondary aromas” or the aromas from winemaking choices. Can you find traces of oak-ageing, such as vanilla, baking spices, ginger or toast? How about brioche or butter from lees? Depending on the wine variety and how long it’s aged, you may be able to pick out “tertiary aromas”. These are typically warming and rich but subtle and complex – tobacco, caramel, truffle, dried fruit, saline and earthiness.
5 things to look out for when tasting wine
Texture
When you take your initial sip, let the wine gently coat your mouth and spread across your palate. Focus on the wine’s weight and texture. Light-bodied wines typically feel like water, but full-bodied wines often feel heavier on the tongue, similar to cream.
Flavour
On your first sip, what do you taste first? Is it fruit? Is it blossom? A herb or savoury earthiness? These are your primary flavours. After another sip and a little bit of time, you might be able to identify specific flavours such as bramble berries, cherries, pears, lemon zest, apples, pears or tropical fruits such as mango or coconut. You might even pick up on savoury hints of ginger, bell pepper, wet leaves or coffee. Aim to be as precise as possible; do the flavours remind you of orange blossom, thyme, elderflower, crushed stone or fresh-cut grass?
Sweetness and acidity
Just because a wine has sweet flavours doesn’t necessarily mean it is actually sweet, so pay attention to how it feels in your mouth. Wines with high residual sugar levels will have a thick, syrupy mouthfeel and can cause a slight tingle on the tip of your tongue.
Highly acidic wines typically leave a zingy sensation all over your tongue and a clean, invigorating finish that makes the back of your jaw tingle. In comparison, wines with low acidity usually have a richer and smoother taste.
Tannins
A wine high in tannins creates a bitter, astringent sensation that leaves your mouth dry. Low-tannin wines don’t leave this sensation, allowing the wine’s signature fruit flavours to shine.
Alcohol content
You can gauge a wine’s alcohol level from the first sip. High-alcohol wines might create a tell-tale warming sensation at the back of your throat.
Don't forget to savour the taste!
Now you can enjoy and process all the sensations a wine can offer.
After swallowing, pay your attention to the wine’s finish. Does the wine linger or disappear quickly? A long finish is an indicator of high quality. Complex wines are typically more detailed and deep, with longer finishes and lingering flavours.
Finally, consider the overall balance of the wine. Do the flavours, acidity, tannins and alcohol feel balanced, or is one more obvious? Good balance is the ultimate sign of a top-quality wine.
How to host a wine tasting
Pick your Wines: Pick a mix of red, white and rosé wines for your tasting – ideally five to seven different types of wine. You might even want to include a sparkling wine to welcome everyone and enjoy at the beginning.
Get the order right: As a general rule, you’ll want to start with fizz, then move to light whites, oaky whites, rosé, light reds, big bold reds and end with sweet dessert wines.
Set your table: Avoid too much washing up afterwards – use an all-purpose wine glass with a wide bottom that narrows towards the top. This shape lets you swirl the wine to enjoy its smell fully.
Start your wine-tasting journey today
A wine tasting provides wine lovers and wine newbies an exciting opportunity to discover and test new wine styles and share and compare their personal opinions with company. There’s no right or wrong when it comes to wine tasting, and what might be delicious to you isn’t someone else’s cup of tea.
Luckily, Laithwaites presents a wide variety of wonderful, premium wines from across the world, each with detailed tasting notes to support you on your wine-tasting adventure.
Shop our selection of red, white, rosé and sparkling wines today.
About the author
Chris Larkin
A seasoned copywriter with over two decades experience, Chris has been part of the team since 2021. At Laithwaites HQ, you’ll find him either working on our latest catalogue or creating informative content for our website. Qualified to WSET Level 3 Wine, Chris is as geeky about wine as he is about copywriting. But when it comes to choosing a special bottle, he is a traditionalist, and loves a good Bordeaux or Mâcon Chardonnay.
