Wines of the World

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Wine Tasting Tips Details

Tasting White Wine / Date Posted:26-June-2009
Sight:
Examine the clarity of your wine. Most wines should be clear and haziness might mean it is spoiled. Next, notice the color which reflects both the type of grapes used and the age of the wine. White wines are described as green, straw, gold, or amber. Younger wine will have a ligher color and possibly greenish tint. As the wine ages, it will become more amber. To inspect the color, tilt your glass away from you at 45 degrees and hold it in front of a white backdrop. Another property of wine that you may notice while observing the color is the intensity of that color. A wine with more intensity appears more concentrated and generally has a more full-bodied taste. Finally, swirl your glass and watch the wine form tears or legs as it runs down the side of the glass. Thicker legs indicate that the wine has a higher alcohol content.

Smell:
Swirl the wine glass to release the aroma of the wine. Place your nose over the rim of the glass and siff twice. White wines can smell like a variety of fruits including apple, pear, grapefruit, honey, and lemon and the strength of the aromas varies. One common strategy for identifying the aromas is to create an image in your head as you smell. Whatever appears will help you to remember and thus compare to other wines.

Taste:
At long last it is time to taste the wine. Take a very small sip and swish the wine around your mouth. Sweet and tart are the two tastes present in white wine. The richness or sweetness depends on whether all grape sugars turned into alcohol during fermentation, tart comes from the natural acidity of wine. The term body refers to the feeling of weight and thickness in the mouth, more viscous wine is described as full-bodied. The flavor of the wine usually matches the aromas that you detected when sniffing it.

Enjoy:
The experience is not over yet. Pay attention to how the flavors linger in your mouth, known as the finish. It is a sign of qulity for a wine to have the proper balance of alcohol, acidity, and ripe fruit flavor.