Wine tasting: an expert guide

Tasting is both simple and highly complex. A child can do it (I’m not talking about wine, obviously), and yet it’s a vast subject whose intricacies could fill many books.

So how do you go about getting the most out of your wine glass? I’ve talked to some of the world’s best tasters to discuss the tactics that they use when assessing, or just enjoying, a wine.

Wine tasting

Professional athletes are keenly aware of what affects their form. Wine tasters – especially those on the buying and writing side of the fence – are more likely to promote the myth of the infallible palate (theirs, naturally). Happily, that conversation is now changing as we learn more about our olfactory and taste systems.

‘The wine taster’s instrument is not only the nose but the entire body,’ says Ann-Sophie Barwich, a cognitive scientist, empirical philosopher and the author of Smellosophy: What the Nose Tells the Mind (£28.95, Harvard University Press, 2020). ‘The expert nose measures the volatiles in the wine, while their sensation is an expression also of the constitution of the taster. Mood, expectations, fatigue… all of that mediates the qualitative experience of a wine.’

What can we do about our physical and emotional inconsistencies and the impact they have on the tasting experience? Be aware of it, for a start. Work to minimise variations rather than ignoring them, and exploit the times when we’re on peak form.

Most wine tasters say they perform best in the morning. Jacques Polge, head perfumer at Chanel from 1978 to 2015, told me he found the same and deliberately assigned ‘important’ smell tasks to the first part of the day.

Feeling hungry? Good, your nose will perform better. ‘Processing in the olfactory pathway is heavily dependent on whether we are hungry or full,’ writes neuroscientist Gordon Shepherd in Neurogastronomy: How the Brain Creates Flavor and Why it Matters (Columbia University Press, 2012).

Another reason to beware of lunch is that recently eaten food can interfere with the perception of taste, of sweetness, bitterness, astringency and acidity in a wine. Neutral (not salty) crackers and dry bread are best if you need tasting snacks. Avoid eating anything sweet for at least one hour before a tasting, because sugar can crash your palate completely and it takes a while to recover (I’ve never found a satisfactory explanation for this phenomenon – do get in touch if you can shed any light).

Also: ‘Be wary of toothpaste, especially minty ones, as they can ruin the taste of wine if used quite soon beforehand,’ advises Jancis Robinson MW.

How big is a sip?

‘Here’s a variable that’s rarely discussed,’ says Alex Hunt MW of Berkmann Wine Cellars. ‘Everyone will have a different sweet spot, but it’s worth experimenting until you find the sip size that gives you the most vivid impression of the wine.

‘It shouldn’t be so much that there’s no room to move the wine around your mouth or bubble a bit of air through it – but it’s important to have enough [in the mouth] that the aromas reach the back of the nose, and also to get a sense of the wine’s physical presence.’

Start with a good glass

‘While there’s a lot of marketing hype about stemware, just one well-made, decent-sized glass will do,’ says Australian wine journalist and competition judge Jane Faulkner. ‘It has to allow the aromatics to do their thing and help the wine open up. Basically, your nose has to fit into it. It is completely unnecessary to have glasses matched to particular wines or styles. Who has room for that? I standardise my professional tastings with the Riedel Ouverture Magnum.’

‘Shape, size and thickness of glass really can make an amazing difference to how a wine tastes – especially to the aromas,’ says Robinson, who, ‘needless to say’, is keen on her own, made in collaboration with designer Richard Brendon. Champagne should be tasted in a normal wine glass or bowed (wide) flute, never a tall, narrow flute.

Make the first sniff count

According to Steven Spurrier, Decanter’s former consultant editor: ‘Michael Broadbent’s flow of tasting still rules: colour, nose, palate, aftertaste and spit.’ (Sadly, Steven Spurrier passed away in March 2021; see Decanter’s tribute.)

The clues offered by colour are of particular interest to those blind tasting, but they’re important to normal drinkers, too. We drink with our eyes: what we see will influence flavour perception.

However, for anyone, the first sniff is key.

American educator and founder of the Windows on the World Wine School, Kevin Zraly, says many of his pupils try to taste the wine before smelling it. ‘I say, “Stop. Wait. Don’t even think of trying this wine. We are going to spend three minutes [smelling]. I wanna hear you smell the wine.” Then I have them put their hand on top of the glass and swirl it, which intensifies the aromas [when you remove your hand and smell]. I say, “Look, I’m not a magician, did you just see what happened here?”’

If you have ever attended one of the legendary blind-tasting seminars run by Ronan Sayburn MS, head of wine at London private members’ club 67 Pall Mall, you could be forgiven for wondering if you’re ever going to taste the wine at all, such is the detail with which he encourages his students to parse colour and aroma.

The first sniff is the deepest – or at least the most important, as Cat Stevens didn’t sing. Nasal adaptation means that your nose quickly acclimatises to smells. Each further sniff seems progressively less intense. If you notice that you’re suffering from nose fatigue, reset by smelling yourself: bury your nose in the crook of your arm.

The approach: hedonistic vs intellectual

It’s on tasting – as opposed to smelling – that there’s most divergence between the emotional and intellectual schools. That is, between the gestalt approach of looking at the whole and noting its effect on your senses – and the analytical rigour of the systematic approach taught to professional tasters, which considers acidity, tannin, body, alcohol, length, flavour, winemaking influence, difference between the nose and the palate, viscosity, primary and tertiary aromas… and so on.

‘Being analytical first and then allowing the emotional brain to kick in will give you the best tasting experience,’ explains Steve Smith MW, co-owner of Pyramid Valley Vineyards in New Zealand.

Sayburn notes that even within the discipline of blind tasting there is a place for emotion. ‘It’s not a very scientific way to blind taste but – do you like it? If you gave me a glass of German Riesling to taste I’d be, “It’s lovely, I like that”. If you gave me an Italian Pinot Grigio, I often wouldn’t [like it], so I wouldn’t be putting that down as a Rheingau Riesling.’

Know your palate

‘Knowing your weaknesses is crucial to understanding your palate and eliminating biases accurately,’ says critic, consultant and educator Jeannie Cho Lee MW. ‘Are you less sensitive to tannins? Do you enjoy high acidity? Do you often miss wine faults like brettanomyces or TCA? Discovering your strengths and weaknesses as a taster will enable you to know why certain wine styles, varieties or producers appeal to you or turn you off. You’ll understand your palate preferences much faster and more easily, and the wines you gravitate towards will make sense.’

Recognising aroma and flavour

The ability to recognise and label smells can be innate – my four-year-old stuck her nose in a glass of Fourrier’s Gevrey-Chambertin and announced, delighted, ‘it smells of strawberries’.

However, it’s not something at which humans are very good. Greg Sherwood MW, of Handford Wines, believes it is worth training your nose and mind to recognise and name specific aromas of, say, black pepper or raspberry. Sayburn takes a detective inspector’s approach to pinpointing aromas: ‘Most white wines smell a bit citrussy. But does it smell like lemon or is it more like an orange or mandarin? Is it an unripe citrus character, or is it more ripe?’

The art of tasting notes

‘Keep it simple when it comes to tasting notes,’ advises Zraly. Jason Haynes, director of Flint Wines, agrees that a few words can take you a long way. ‘The terms I use for wines I like are remarkably consistent and limited. I am less interested in trying to find a specific flower or herb that the wine reminds me of; it’s more of an overall feel for the wine. Whites may have good tension, vibrancy, stoniness, minerality (and I know some people hate that term). Reds I like might be crunchy, silky, perfumed, well defined, pure, delicate.’

Berkmann Wine Cellars purchasing director Alex Hunt MW is another advocate for picking up on texture. ‘This is what really separates the great from the merely good. Compare the toned plumpness of Alsace with the thrilling density of old-school white Burgundy, the silk-backed sandpaper of young Barolo to the succulent fluidity of Sonoma Pinot. They are all just solutions in an alcohol-water base, and yet capable of evoking an immense range of textural impressions. For me, it’s a major part of the magic.’

One of the best pieces of tasting note advice I was given, many years ago, came from wine writer and critic Oz Clarke: ‘Sometimes there is no tasting note.’ So true. Move on.

Gauging drinking windows

This is an area in which experience, intellect and memory are key. Lee says: ‘The drinking window will depend on the style, grape variety, producer and vintage. Some wines will surprise you with how long they can age, so the end of the drinking window is harder to estimate; this comes mainly from experience with that particular wine and producer. For example, with experience you know that a Château Giscours Margaux will have a longer drinking window than d’Issan in the same vintage. Gauging accurate drinking windows is challenging even for professionals, and I think around half of the time we get it wrong. We improve with experience and time.’

And finally…

Says Faulkner: ‘My biggest tip to anyone who enjoys wine and wants to learn more, apart from practice: come to your own conclusion.’

Tasting: pay attention – get in the zone – eliminate distractions

Almost everyone I speak to about tasting says this and says it in a different way. It’s simple advice, but worth taking seriously.

‘If you really want to do a wine justice, take a deep breath, get your mind focused then relaxed, and engage the senses and your brain,’ says Steve Smith MW, co-owner of Pyramid Valley Vineyards in New Zealand. ‘I know this works because I don’t have a great natural palate, but when I get my brain focused and relaxed, it’s pretty sharp.’

Frédéric Panaiotis, chef de cave at Champagne Ruinart, says he wishes people would ‘taste Champagne sitting down’, which is confusing until he elucidates: ‘Or just be in an environment where they take the time. A lot of Champagne is consumed standing up, talking.’

It’s an important point. Distractions of all kinds are bad news, impairing the ability to absorb information from the wine in the glass. That’s why Sally Easton MW wears noise-cancelling headphones at large tastings. And it’s why producers shouldn’t talk to tasters who are trying to assess a wine. As the late Steven Spurrier, former consultant editor for Decanter, noted: ‘The key is to pay attention.’

Moore recommends: five brilliant resources for wine tasting tips

Essential Winetasting by Michael Schuster (Mitchell Beazley)

Originally published in 2000, this award-winning book remains a good, practical and logical guide to the nuts and bolts of tasting wine.

Blind tasting with Ronan Sayburn MS – Old World vs New World (for 67 Pall Mall)

Wine geeks watch blind-tasting videos on YouTube. This recording of an online class for 67 Pall Mall is a good example of the evidence-gathering exercise practised by blind tasters. The first half hour is a general guide. Via www.67pallmall.com/virtual-events.

Red & White: An Unquenchable Thirst for Wine by Oz Clarke (Little Brown)

Clarke’s wine memoir is a must-read for any wine enthusiast. It contains a chapter, ‘Some thoughts on wine tasting: everyone can do it’, that outlines Clarke’s own approach to tasting. Feels like having him stand beside you, pouring a glass.

Smellosophy: What the Nose Tells the Mind by AS Barwich (Harvard University Press)

A detailed and academic guide to our sense of smell, which is, of course, what tasting is all about.

Virtual wine tasting with Kevin Zraly

The American wine educator has been running wine classes for five decades, and now they are available online through www.kevinzraly.com

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