The 4 Steps To Terrific Taste: How To Develop Your Palette Like A True Sommelier
If you’re looking to sharpen your senses and become more confident in your wine-tasting ability, there’s no better way to do so than practice! Wine tasting is often something you can think only applies to lifelong wine lovers, but even if you’re a more casual wine drinker, it can be fulfilling to develop your taste.
Here’s how, and it only takes four simple steps:
1: Look
2: Smell
3: Taste
4: Think
STEP 1: LOOK AT YOUR WINE
What do you see when you look at a glass of wine? The first thing you’ll likely realize is the color of the wine in front of you. The longer the wine comes in contact with those skins, the more those skins will impart their color on the wine and therefore, the redder it will be. When looking at white wines, a lighter white will result in a crisp and refreshing taste whereas a more yellowy-hue might tell you that it has been aged in an oak barrel and be smoother and richer in taste.
STEP 2: SMELL YOUR WINE
The next thing that’ll tell you a lot about the wine will be its smell. When you first start smelling wine, think big to small. Ask yourself what fruits you smell and what finer aromas stand out to you. On a board level, you can divide the smell of a wine into three categories:
Primary Aromas are derived from grapes and include fruits and floral notes.
Secondary Aromas come from winemaking practices. The most common aromas at this stage come from the yeast used in the making of white wines.
Tertiary Aromas come from aging, such as in oak barrels. These aromas are mostly savory and are subtler in nature.
STEP 3: TASTE YOUR WINE
Taste seems like a simple part of the process, but the taste comes in two steps: what you taste on your tongue and what you taste residually after you swallow the wine. In each of these steps, it is important to watch out for the “taste” and the “touch” of the wine. Taste refers to what notes your tongue picks up on—be it sour, sweet, bitter, savory, etc. and touch refers to how the wine feels on your tongue and how smooth or rich it feels going down.
Taste can vary depending on the color of the wine, how it is made, and how long it is stored and aged. For example, wines that have more tannins such as rich red wines will be drier than wines with fewer tannins.
STEP 4: THINK ABOUT YOUR WINE
The last step to have a wholistic wine-tasting experience is to think about the wine.
Here are a few questions you can ask yourself for starters:
Did I enjoy the wine?
Was it unique to me and if so, why?
Which elements of the wine made the biggest impression?
What could I pair this wine with?
Thinking about the wine is an important step because it allows you to consciously reflect on the other 3 steps in a proper tasting and will help you mentally keep track of which wines you love most and why.
Becoming a great wine taster is something anyone can do. We encourage you to develop your palette and discover lots of new wines to enjoy!
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