Let's talk tasting

A lot of people may be intimidated or even feel a little silly when they visit a winery and see all of "those pros" tasting the wine in a particular manner. It's really very simple, and even though it may look kind of ridiculous, it really does let you experience a glass of wine in a more profound manner. There are five basic steps: 1. Examine the color of the wine-the best way would be to hold the glass up to a blank sheet of white paper to examine its color and transparency. However, if you don't have a sheet of paper, just try to hold the glass up in a natural light coming in from the window. You will see if the wine can be described as "white", "straw yellow", "golden yellow", "purple", "red", etc. 2. The next step would be to examine the "legs" of the wine. To do this, tilt the glass slightly, and watch the wine fall down the side of the glass. The "legs" are the streaks left behind by the wine. A wine with good "legs" will leave a heavy streak and is most likely a full bodied wine. 3. The next step would be sniff the wine. That's it..just sniff it! 4. Now, the part I find to be the most fun. Place the glass on a table, and swirl it around by holding the stem of the glass. Now, sniff again. Notice the difference?? This oxygenates the wine, and allows more of the aroma to come out. You will be able to notice a profound difference between your first sniff and after the swirl. What do you smell? 5. The last step..taste! Take a sip, hold it in your mouth for a few seconds and feel the texture. Feel if it's sweet, tangy, etc. You can even take in breath of air while it's in your mouth to really get a sense of the taste. Now, I prefer to swallow the wine, even though real wine tasters will spit it out so that the alcohol doesn't go to their head and weakens their senses to tasting the rest of the wines..But that seems like such a waste to me! Enjoy!!