How to Taste Wine? First… Observe!

How to taste wine better, like a pro or a real connoisseur, Julien explains in this 3-part series the 3 steps of phases to a satisfying wine tasting that will allow you to enjoy and understand wine better.

This Epidose #1 of Julien’s 3.5 Minute Wine School, a YouTube video series to increase your knowledge and understanding of wine, the finest of all alcoholic beverages in short small doses with fun and informative videos.

This is course number 1 of the Julien’s 3.5 minute wine course so we are going to start from the beginning, how to taste wine properly, or at least better.
This is more intended to people that are relatively new to wine, but I think if you are already a wine connoisseur, you will still learn a little something, as I will try cover why each step is important with some details. In course number 2, I will cover why it’s important to take time to taste wine properly, so stay tuned for this, coming out tomorrow.
Essentially, for tasting and appreciating wine, we try to use as many of our sense as possible. We use them all in fact, except for hearing. There is not a lot you can do with wine about hearing, or perhaps play your favorite tune as you’re tasting!
So, the first phase to tasting wine properly, is to spend a little bit of time looking at it…

Part 1: the Sight or Appearance.
Looking at a wine’s appearance, even though it doesn’t give that much pleasure in itself (although most wine’s look rather good and shiny), but it prepares you and your mind for what you are going to be tasting.
Say I try this white wine. I can see that it’s bright and shiny, and that it doesn’t have a very intense color, no brown hues. So this is an indication that I am more likely to be with a crisp white wine, unoaked rather than anything else, possibly a dry wine too.
If I look at this red wine, I can see that it’s pretty dark and intense, so I should expect a fair amount of tannins and astringency from it, possibly quite a lot of alcohol, more than is I was looking at a lightly-colored wine.
Then if I look at that third wine, I can see that it’s much more intense in color, so I should expect a much deeper wine, possibly sweet, and probably a fair amount of oak, a lot of aromatic intensity.
Essentially, looking at a wine, prepares you mentally to what you are going to be tasting, so you are not surprised by it. We all know that if you put something in your mouth that doesn’t taste like what you had anticipated, you are likely to feel a bit uncomfortable about it, so it doesn’t put you in the best mindset to appreciate a wine. You want to be ready, focused and aware about what you’re going to be drinking.

Watch the Presentation Video of Julien’s 3.5 Minute Wine School: https://youtu.be/mW-rKpCV0-8

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