6 tips for wine tasting like a pro

Wine tasting isn’t rocket science. It goes without saying that if you can taste food, you can taste wine. The trick is to take the time to think about what you're drinking and enjoy it with all of your senses.

With winemakers across Canada busily working their magic turning grapes into wine, now’s the best time to visit wine country or toast their efforts from a far.

Getting to know more about wine is all a matter of taste and experience. And experience comes from taking time to taste a variety of wine to aid your quest to discover which styles you best enjoy. It’s as easy as swirl, sniff and sip. There are simple steps you can use to educate your palate.

Look: Examine the wine's colour. Is it clear or hazy? Can you see through it or not?

Swirl: Swirling aerates the wine and gives you a better indication of its aromas.

Smell: Smell is important to a wine taster. Much of what we think is taste really is experienced through our noses. You can only perceive five tastes — sweetness, sourness, bitterness, saltiness and umami — but most people can identify more than 2,000 different scents. Does the wine smell like fruit? Flowers? Your leather jacket? A wet dog?

Taste: Taking a sip and instantly swallowing isn’t tasting. It’s not a race. Tasting is done with your taste buds. The average person has 5,000 taste buds, found all over the mouth — on both sides of the tongue, underneath, on the tip and extending to the back of the throat. Chew the wine — wine jargon for swishing it all around your mouth. In doing so, you’re able sense not only the taste of the wine but its texture and weight. A wine’s sense of body or weight, which may range from watery-thin to viscous and oily is a big part of the experience of tasting wine.

Savour: After each taste, pause for a few moments and savour it. The first thing to consider is whether or not you like it. Is it your style?

Remember: When you find a wine you like, it's a good idea to write down the name of the wine and its price along with a note about what you thought about its taste or appeal. Use any descriptions that are meaningful to you — you don't need to be overly technical or specific. I find the terms "tasty," "delicious" and "wow" most useful when I'm scouring my tasting notes while looking to a review to publish or a wine purchase.