Videojug

Wine Tasting Basics

Print Info
  • Videojug
  • Videojug
  • 4:16
  • Yes
  • 360p
  • 640x360
  • Flash
  • h.264
  • 900kbps

Wine Tasting Basics

Ever wanted to know how to taste wine? VideoJug shows you how to look at, smell, and taste wine like a professional with this great video on wine tasting basics. Ever wanted to know how to taste wine? VideoJug shows you how to look at, smell, and taste wine like a professional with this great video on wine tasting basics.

Step 1: You will need

Step 2: Look

Fill glass one third full.
Examine the wine for bubbles, haziness and sediment - these may indicate a fault.
Hold the glass at an angle of 30-45 degrees, looking down at the wine.
Varying thickness - shows range of colours.
White wine goes darker with age. Red goes lighter and browner.
Swirl around and look at legs - indicate alcohol and sweetness, not quality.

Step 3: Sniff

Swirl to aerate.
Put whole nose in, long deep sniff.
Note complexity of smell. Try to identify different smells.
Beginners - difficult to identify smells.
With experience - easier to separate components.
Wine often smells of various fruit, spices, wood. Sometimes more unusual things like leather, oil, tobacco.
Can also smell if wine is faulty. Most common fault is corkiness, caused by chemical reaction in cork. Other faults include oxidation and excess sulphur dioxide.

Step 4: Drink

Take a big sip.
Suck/slurp some air to get more oxygen in - enhances the taste. Don't worry about looking silly.
Note how wine affects the palate - sweetness, acidity, tannin all tasted in different areas.
Most of the taste actually comes from smell.
Whether to spit or swallow? Reason for spitting is if you are going to taste a large amount of wine and don't want to get too inebriated (e.g. if driving).

11,460 views
Tips & Comments
  1. bodeguita

    iIwould like to learn how to teach the essentials of the process of wine making to my students.I live in Mendoza, Argentina and we have more or less 1.200 wineries here.People in the world know us for our Cabrnet Sauvignon, And the slogan we use to promote tourism is "MENDOZA TIERRA DEL SOL Y DEL BUEN VINO".Our vintage festival is one of the most seen and known all over the world. I´d appreciate your answer.

  2. Anonymous

    THANKS FOR THE TIPS!

  3. Anonymous

    watch this or just watch the movie "sideways" you will learn the same things.

  4. edw28

    for quality wines that will be aged Real Cork > Screwcap > Synthetic Cork ,in terms of oxidation prevention and protective qualities.

  5. Anonymous

    if you guys were real connoisseurs of wine, or keep up at all with wine technology at all, you'd know that screw caps are becoming more and more common in the bottling of wine due to their effectiveness of preventing "corked" bottles by allowing no oxygen into the bottle. almost all australian wines use them and they're being used in many other countries for wines that are intended to be drunk young.

  6. Anonymous

    No wine connoisseur goes to a "taste vin" to taste some cheap bottle of wine with a winding Coke like "closing device". LOL No wonder he seems to run that "affordable wine site"!!!

  7. Anonymous

    All the fuss about a wine that does not even have a cork? lol Do not need that for a cheap cooking wine, like this one!

  8. Anonymous

    This guys runs a site called InterWined.com, all about affordable wines.

  9. dbetz321@aol.com

    wow! its about time i learned this! very nicely done. dee

  10. Anonymous

    think I will have some wine