Wine Tasting Tutorial – Step One
Why Taste Wine?
- To assess the quality and style of a wine
- To monitor the progress of a wine in terms of maturity and development
- To provide a personal record of wines tasted
- To assist in the description of a wine to others
Ideal Conditions
In order to taste wine properly, it is important that your impression of the wine is not affected by any external factors, therefore, the following conditions are the ideal conditions to taste wine in:
- There is a good source of natural light – this helps to assess the colour of the wine effectively
- Clean white surfaces to taste against – this helps you to reach an accurate judgment of the colour of the wine
- There are no distracting odours e.g. perfume, tobacco, food
- You have a clean palate e.g. unaffected by any strong flavours such as coffee. Eating a plain cracker or piece of bread can help neutralize your palate before or during a wine tasting.
Reasons for keeping tasting notes
- By putting your sensations into words, your impressions of the wine you are tasting are more likely to remain in your memory
- Helps us to communicate our opinions of a wine with other people – including people who have not tasted that wine.
- To build up a personal record of wines
ISO Tasting Glass
The WSET recommends that the ideal glass for tasting wine effectively is the ISO tasting glass.
The ISO glass is between 150 and 160mm tall, has a good-sized rounded bowl which helps swirl the wine and the sides of the glass are slightly sloped inwards which helps concentrate and capture the aromas of the wine.
The ideal amount of wine required for a tasting is 50ml.
Wine Tasting Tutorial – Step Two
Systematic Approach to Tasting
In this section, you will learn how to use the WSET Systematic Approach to Tasting. This is an approach to tasting wine which requires us to describe each aspect of a wine in a logical order as we encounter them. Download a copy of this now (PDF, 165KB).
There are four stages to the Systematic Approach to tasting: