Wine 101- Tasting Tip

To many people, tasting wine means taking a sip and swallowing immediately. There is no need to rush things! To truly taste a wine you need to use all of your senses; smell, sight, touch and taste. Tasting is something you do with your taste buds. You have taste buds all over your mouth — on both sides of the tongue, underneath, on the tip, and extending to the back of your throat. The average person has 5,000 taste buds. If you do what many people do, you take a gulp of wine and bypass all of those important taste buds. When I taste wine I leave it in my mouth for three to five seconds before swallowing. The wine warms up, sending signals about the bouquet and aroma up through the nasal passage then on to the brain. Remember, 90 percent of taste is smell. Tasting wine is confirming what the color and smell are telling you.

Go out to a tasting today and take your time. It will make all the difference in the world!

Cheers!