Wine tasting for beginners (part one)

Wine is amazing, seductive, different, a living thing constantly evolving, with a myriad of smells tastes and textures to discover; it will, if you treat your relationship with it in the right way, enhance your life's journey in more ways than I care to describe. But you've probably been at the wine over the Christmas period, what with stuffing your little faces with all sorts of delicacies and drinking whatever you can get your hands on. And weaving about when walking seems to be perfectly normal over the festive period - a sort of ritual dance, really, not an indication that you may possibly have over-indulged on the vino.

Drinking wine is one thing, appreciating it properly quite another; to understand this you have to go back to the beginning and approach wine slowly and carefully. To be successful in understanding and appreciating wine you must start with:

1. An open and enquiring mind.
2. A willingness to learn about the subject, if necessary by reading (by this I mean serious books on the subject written by proper wine writers, not fashionable foodie articles and magazines).
3. A willingness to taste, taste, taste in a structured way, thinking about and recording your feelings and sensations.
4. Patience.

Wine is a complex subject and one where you never stop learning, never. No-one in the world knows all there is to know, though there are some people who know an awful lot. The normal route for that is on a regional basis as specialists, though excellent professional tasters like Oz Clarke become polymaths through extensive, well-organised tasting and a good memory. These days there are a great many courses open to non-professionals and, indeed, many tutored tastings being held on a regular basis, both being potentially invaluable. And, of course, our home and our outings to restaurants are opportunities to taste/think/record.

The first thing to do when served a wine is to look at its colour in the glass, which is why your wine glasses should be clear and bare of decorations, no matter how beautiful the coloured glasses may look on your table. No wine lover in their right mind would consider serving wine, or even water to be honest, in glasses that are either coloured or decorated with anything - no, not even ancient family crests, pompous gold edges etc. Where wine glasses are concerned, the simpler the better so that one can see the colour of the wine clearly; this tells us quite a bit about the wine, its age and state of health. So look, enquiringly! Needless to say, glasses must be clean before serving wine, so always check yours by sniffing before the wine is poured to ensure there are no rogue (egg, washing fluid etc.) odours.

We then need to 'nose' the wine (smell it, to the uninitiated) to get a first complete idea of what it will taste like and if it has any faults - all faults show on the nose first and can be detected, if we are careful and patient. If you are new to the game, the first impressions will usually be : wine-y, alcohol, some kind of fruit... Persevere and don't look to others for inspiration but to your sensory table and memory, without fear of ridicule - if the wine reminds you of nail varnish or peaches or manureor strawberries or cigars just note it down. With time and experience you will begin to be more analytical, see things where previously you saw little, so continue sticking your hooter in that glass, repeatedly and at all times (wines change in the glass), in order to train your nose. And incidentally it is a good idea to 'nose' your food as well and relate this to wine.

The moment has come to taste what is in your glass, though you have had a preview on the nose; for this you need a sip NOT a mouthful! You take the sip, keep it at the front of your mouth and swirl it around your tongue and front teeth for a few seconds to extract the taste details; only then are you allowed to drink it, though at professional tastings you would usually spit it into the specially provided vessels. When you are swirling the wine around on your palate try to think, once again of what it reminds you of - initially this will, once again after the nose, be limited and predictable. Only slowly and through practice will you start feeling more and more, as your palate is becoming more educated and you are more relaxed in your approach. It is good practice to note things down immediately without too much thought in order to capture first impressions (they are usually, but not always, correct) and edit later if necessary.

Why all this palaver you may ask if all I want is to imbibe the stuff and have a good time? Well, if you are imbibing for the sole reason of getting drunk then don't bother - this post is not aimed at you. If, on the other hand, you are imbibing because you are fascinated by wine, its history over the centuries, like the taste and how it can complement your food (another big subject, we'll talk about it another time!) then look, listen and learn. Your patience will be greatly rewarded.

Do note that there is a taste progression and that, irrespective of financial ability (or lack thereof!) we would be doing our tastebuds a great disservice by trying to start at the top: DO NOT DO IT THAT WAY! Build up to things  starting near the bottom, with simpler wines, slowly moving on to the more complex, individual ones. And taste, taste, taste as there is no substitute for practice/experience!

P.S : The wine I chose for the photographs is an excellent 'beginners' wine, a soft, juicy Cotes du Rhone that is easy to drink - a great everyday red wine at a sensible price. My glass in the photograph is over-filled as I was glugging the lovely stuff; for tasting purposes, as you would need about a third of that, maybe even a bit less.