How to Taste Wine Like a Professional (Step-by-Step Beginner Guide)

By Wineducation Mitch

Most people drink wine casually. Professionals taste it systematically.

Tasting wine like a professional isn’t about being snobby. And not everyone needs to be a professional. It’s about understanding what’s in the glass and a little bit of structure to how you assess that is a great way to get to better understand wine.

And when you better understand your wines, the more enjoyment you will get.

Step 1: Look
Assess clarity, colour depth, and hue. Is it pale lemon or deep ruby? Colour gives clues about grape variety, age, and climate.

Step 2: Swirl & Smell
Swirling releases aromatic compounds. Take a short sniff, then a deeper one. Identify fruit, floral, spice, oak, or earthy notes.

Most of: is it pleasant? Do you like the smell?

Step 3: Taste
Take a moderate sip and let the wine coat your palate. Pay attention to:

• Acidity (freshness). That tingle like biting an apple. That’s the acid. It can make your mouth water. It can also be unpleasant when out of balance. Is the acid soft, pleasant, or aggressive?
• Tannin (structure and grip, mainly in reds). How much does it dry your mouth? is it pleasant?
• Alcohol (warmth). Is it balance with the wine. Or too low that it affects the body, or two high that it tastes like port?
• Body (weight on palate). Is it soft or mouth filling? Do you like it? Is it what you expected from that wine?
• Flavour/Aroma intensity. Are the flavours dialled to 10, or just not leaping out?
• Flavour Profile: The most basic way to sort is into Clusters: Floral, Green Fruit, Citrus Fruit, Stone Fruit, Tropical Fruit, Red Fruit, Black Fruit, Dried Fruit, Herbaceous, Herbal, Pungent/Spicy. Once you have the general area, most tasters end up having favourite go-to describers under these categories.
• Example: “Cassis, Blackberry, Cigar Box, Tomato leaf and Liqourice” for a wine that hits Black Fruit with some Herbaceous and Spicy characters.

Step 4: Finish
How long do flavours linger? Longer finishes often indicate higher quality. You can’t fake length of flavour with trick winemaking, the grapes had to be good.

Using a structured method trains your palate quickly. With repetition, you’ll begin recognising patterns in grape varieties, flavour profiles, regions, and winemaking styles.

Wine tasting is a skill not a talent. And like any skill, it improves with deliberate practice. It is worth taking brief notes of wines that are memorable, good or bad, either by keeping a notepad, or visually with photos or even creating your own wine blog or Instagram page.

That was the basis for me starting this page and my @wineducation Instagram and it has helped me hugely.

I also recommend anyone who is getting in to wine to take a course with the Wine and Spirits Education trust (WSET). The WSET courses are designed to be fun and give a global perspective on wine. They have courses all around the world and the level 1 and 2 have a lot to offer as a starting point for most wine drinkers. (WSET Website)

FAQ Section

Q: What are the steps in wine tasting?
A: Look, swirl, smell, taste, and assess structure and a basic flavour profile (acidity, tannin, alcohol, body, finish, flavour cluster). The main one of all is: do I like it? The structured tasting process is to assess: Why do you like it?

Q: Do you need special training to taste wine properly?
A: No. anyone can learn a structured tasting approach with practice. But I do recommend the Wine and Spirits Education Trust WSET 1 or 2 course as a starting point.