Some very simple and important recommendations to begin tasting wines at home, without needing to be a great expert, are; have smooth, transparent and preferably crystal glasses, a place free of smells and aromas, and with good lighting. The wine should also be at the right temperature. Once these basic concepts have been followed, you can begin your tasting by following three steps: sight, smell and taste.

Sight

The first thing to do is to incline the glass to 45 degrees before a white background in order to begin to evaluate the color, which can vary according to its age. For example, in the case of the reds, we can find purple and violet colors when they are young, while more aged wines have red-tile or orange colors.

In the whites, we can find clear and greenish yellow colors in their youth and straw, new gold or old gold yellow colors when more aged. You should then confirm that the wine has no sediments and is clean and brilliant. In this stage, the wine should be passed smoothly around the sides of the glass and it should be noted how it sticks to form droplets, called tears or legs.

If they are slim, it means that it will be a wine light in the mouth, and if thick, a wine with a larger body. If they fall slowly, it indicates that it is a wine with a good concentration of alcohol, but, if they fall quickly, it indicates that is a wine low in alcohol.

Smell

This is one of the more subjective stages, as the sense of smell varies from one person to another.

To begin, we should bring the wine close to the nose and see whether it is agreeable and that we find aromas (qualities) and not smells (defects).

Then proceed from the general to the particular, i.e. categorize the wines in aromatic groups, whether fruity, floral, herbal, vegetal or spicy, and later try to find the maximum of aromas we can according to our smelling capacity, without forgetting that the nose is a muscle that we should exercise, so the more we play with it, the greater number of aromas we can perceive.

Taste

We shall begin by measuring its strength on the palate: whether it is light, medium or strong as well as its acidity (salivation in the mouth), whether it is agreeable or very marked, whether it is sweet or dry and later its texture, in the reds whether it is sharp or velvety, and in the whites whether it is silky or light, and we should conclude with the measurements of its permanence in the mouth, whether short, medium or long.

The tasting is very important as with the most information we have on the wine, the more we will appreciate it when drinking and pairing it, and why not, sharing it.

I hope that next time you open a bottle of wine you can delight in each of its qualities, unique to each bottle.