Wine Tasting

Wine tasting is at once an art and a technique. We expose the wine to our senses in order to analyse it, describe it, rate it and classify it. By acquiring the right knowledge and properly understanding and applying technique, anyone can be a good wine taster. Wine tasters must continually train themselves in order to develop their sensorial memory and to be able to distinguish between different types of wine; they need to receive the right education in order to familiarise themselves with wines and to be able to properly express the sensations conveyed.

Wine tasters need to adhere to certain guidelines in order to be able to properly appreciate the sensations of the wine to be sampled. For several hours prior to tasting, wine tasters should not drink tea or coffee, smoke, use perfumes, soaps or toothpaste.

After tasting one wine and before tasting another, it is a good idea to rinse one's mouth with water and to eat a little bread.

It is essential that the wine taster be in the proper state of mind and body in order to have a successful wine tasting experience. He or she should be relaxed and be unaffected by any physical or mental disturbance that could alter the thresholds of sensory perception.

The premises (room, winery, etc.) should be free of noises and odours and should have a temperature between 18 and 22º C, with enough lighting (natural light is preferred). It should not be too dry and should be well ventilated.

The best time of the day to engage in wine tasting is at the end of the morning.

The table used should be easy to clean and covered by a white tablemat with a deep container that serves as a spittoon.

There should be good lighting, provided either by sunlight or halogen lamps. The use of filament or fluorescent bulbs are not recommended since they have the effect of masking colours.

The glass should be made of fine glass and round-bottomed. We recommend the standardised wine tasting glass as per UNE standards.

The glass should be filled to one-third of its maximum capacity; it should be only held by the stem with one’s thumb and index finger so as not to heat up its contents or interfere with visual observation.

Wine should be tasted in silence, and impressions should only be exchanged at the end of the session.

It is important to begin by using the sensorial organs that require the least physical and mental effort and to conclude with those that require a greater degree of attention and closer contact with the wine. Therefore, the order will be as follows: the sense of sight, smell and taste-touch.

At each session, no more than five or six wines should be tasted; this should be accomplished in a maximum of thirty minutes since after that the sense of smell and taste become saturated.

Regarding tasting temperature, it is important to remember that white wines, in which both freshness and aroma should be appreciated, should be tasted at 10-12º C, rosés at 12-16º for lighter wines and at 16-18º for those with more body.

In order for wine tasters to be able to rate a wine, compare their opinions and conserve them, a common procedure is used for recording results: the wine tasting scorecard.

There are different kinds of wine tasting scorecards depending on the type of wine tasting being performed, but all of them should exhibit the following features: ease of use, rigour in evaluation criteria and a good knowledge of them by the group that is to use them.

The aspects usually covered are as follows:

• Wine description.
• Analytical characteristics.
• Stimuli prior to tasting, separating visual from olfactory ones.
• Stimuli in tasting.
• Persistence of finish on the palate and nose.
• Overall impression of the wine.

Other notes that are generally made are the time of the tasting and the wine temperature.