Learn How to Wine Taste: Easy Wine Tasting Tips for Beginners

When I first started wine tasting, I knew nothing. I had four small kids, and the only wine I could afford was in a box, with a tap, and it fit in my refrigerator door. I mean, it was better than the $2 bottles of Boone’s Farm I tried back in college. We were casual wine drinkers, but one day we got fancy and went to a local winery. It was all uphill from there. We began to learn how to wine taste properly, and a whole new world opened up.

All these years later, I am working on WSET certifications and taking master classes, but I’m not what you’d call a wine professional. I’m a wine lover. A wine writer. And every day, I strive to learn more about the wine industry while finding excuses…I mean, reasons…to drink more wine.

Wine tasting is an art and a science. We can develop our palate and learn about aromas, but the craft of wine making, the grapes, and the process are a science, and there’s science behind why wine tastes certain ways, all the way to the terroir (the grape growing environment) to the aging and fermentation processes. You don’t need to know it all to select a good wine and drink it, but if you learn how to wine taste, you will undoubtedly enhance your experience while perhaps finding inspiration for wine travel and visiting wineries.

So let’s talk about how to taste a wine. I want people to feel comfortable in any setting; we all have to start somewhere. Let’s start with the absolute basics and with a quick read, you’ll be ready to go.

First, you don’t need a wine tasting course to learn, but there are some great ones out there. Total Wine has a lot of wine classes; some are seasonal or themed, while others are about various grapes or regions. They are affordable, they’re held frequently, and they are informal, so students of all levels are comfortable. Not all locations offer the same classes, so if you’re interested, look at more than one store if available.

There are also wonderful books you can find on Amazon, but they aren’t going to give you the hands-on experience that’s beneficial to truly understanding a term. Still, they are an awesome reference. I’ll be sharing my favorites and some other solid wine book recommendations in another post soon.

Sit around a room with people tasting a wine. You’ll see a lot of similar movements: sniffing the wine in the glass, swirling the glass, sticking their nose into the bowl of the glass, sipping, and maybe even spitting it into a cup. Some people will skip all of that and go straight to drinking the wine. None of these things are wrong.

Wine tasting myth to bust: smell the cork. Sometimes you may see someone do this, and sometimes, you want to shake your head because it can look a little obnoxious. Truth is, smelling the cork won’t tell you much other than if the wine has gone bad. If you smell the cork and it smells like wet dog or mold, and it’s unappealing, trust it. Otherwise, put the cork aside and move on.

Wine tasting techniques vary. You need to do what works for you, and no one else. Will you possibly enjoy wine more, and have a better wine sensory experience if you are more aware of how to define a wine flavor profile? Yes. Is it necessary to truly like a glass, or bottle, of wine? No.

I’m going to simplify it here by helping you learn how to taste wine in as few steps as possible, starting with arriving at the winery or wine bar.

If you’re not sure what kind of wine you want, talk to the server. A good one will help you. They will ask you a couple of questions, like if you prefer sweet or dry. (Dry means not sweet.) There are in-between wines, but those are your two biggest places to start. They will ask if you want white or red, and if you’re new, chances are you’ll select white. Again, this is no wrong answer, but be honest. It’s okay to say you’re new and need guidance.

Important tip: not all wineries have a huge variety of wine, so if you know you only like white wine, check in advance to be sure that winery makes white wine.

Another option is asking the server where to start and what they recommend. Wine flights can be all whites, all reds, all sparkling wine, or a mix. Some offer sweet flights. If something does not taste good to you, tell them. Many wineries will work with you and replace it or change it up, though sometimes, it’s just part of wine tasting. You won’t like everything you try, even if you’re a seasoned pro.

Wine tasting term to know: flight. It’s a series of small wine tastes, typically ranging from two to five wines in small pours. (States have laws on the size they are allowed to pour, so don’t hassle your server. They don’t make the rules.) You should start from the white wine and work your way to the red. Your palate is affected by what you try. Try the dessert wine last.

If you don’t want a flight, many wineries will give you a small taste of one or two wines that you’d like to sample before selecting a glass. I prefer flights, because I may find a hidden surprise, but if flights aren’t available — which is rare — a sample can help you not waste your money or wine on a full glass you won’t drink.

There are some cute acronyms out there about proper wine tasting, but there are really four main steps: see, swirl, smell, sip, and savor, or the 5 s’s.

See: what do you see when you look at it? What colors are there? Is it clear? Do you see sediment? (Sediment is not always bad, but it can be off-putting if you’re not expecting it.) Pale? Dark? Orange? Pink? (With the resurgence of orange wines here in the states at least, you’ll see this offered more in many wineries.)

Swirl: there are a lot of ways to swirl a glass of wine, but holding the stem and gently swirling it is the most common. You can also place the base of the glass on a flat, stable surface and move it in a circular motion. This helps aerate the wine, opening the flavors, making it easier for you to do the next step.

Smell: what do you smell? Put your nose in the bowl, and take your time. Truly inhale it and if you’re easily distracted, close your eyes. There is no ‘wrong’ aroma.

Sip: let the wine sit in your mouth for a minute. What do you taste? Swallow, and then notice what it tastes then. And what do you taste after? Acidity? Mouth-feel? Pucker? There are so many choices. Swirl it around your mouth; let it hit all different areas of your palate.

Savor: this is pretty much part two of the sip step. Think about what flavors, or notes, you are able to pick out. Pepper, licorice, honey, peach, green apple, melon, even leather…the list goes on. It’s not necessarily a ‘flavor,’ per se, but a hint. Do you like it? Does it taste differently then it smells? The aroma and the tastes can be entirely different.

Top general wine aromas can be floral, spice, leather, tobacco, fruit, herbaceous, or citrus, while some of the most common tastes are similar, with the addition of vanilla, chocolate, smoke, pepper, melon, honey, or even licorice.

Wines will also feel differently in your mouth, but there are so many nuances to that, so we’ll save that for a different post. Terms like tannins, ‘chew,’ and more can seem overwhelming, but for now, just consider how it feels overall and which kinds you like.

Another wine myth to bust: wine “legs” signify a better wine. You may hear “Look at those legs” when someone is swirling their glass and there are marks left on the inside of the glass after the wine settles back at the bottom. It really doesn’t say the wine is higher end or more expensive, just that there’s more sugar or it has a higher alcohol content. An inexpensive wine can have just as many “legs” as an expensive one.

If you are eating while drinking wine, notice the wine taste before you eat, and after. Does the wine complement the food? Does it balance out? Or does the wine or food mute the other? (A white wine with cheesecake, for example, will be an entirely different pairing than a red with a cheesecake.)

Wine tasting doesn’t have to be fancy or make you feel intimidated. Knowing the basic steps will help you feel more comfortable in any wine setting. Just don’t feel the need to fake it. Almost every person who has been to more than a few tastings can tell you about a snobby person they’ve run into; our memories of them aren’t positive, so don’t feel you need to put your pinky in the air or use words that sound pretentious. (Those actions can be the sign of someone who doesn’t know wine at all, or someone who does and just doesn’t realize they sound a certain level of obnoxious.)

Good servers will be glad to know if you’re new. They will be better prepared for wine to steer you towards and not to push you into buying things you’ve not tried. Beware of wineries that tell you that you need to spend more money than you want to on a bottle of wine. If you have a budget and they suggest a $50 bottle, it’s okay to inquire if they have more affordable bottles. They may not, but someone else will. Wine does not have to be an expensive hobby. It most certainly can be, and certain wine regions will have higher priced bottles than others.

I hope these basic wine tasting tips help you feel more at ease heading into a winery and trying new wines. You don’t need to worry about becoming a wine pro, and the more you taste, the more you learn. You really will absorb wine knowledge with more exposure, so give yourself a break. You don’t need to learn it all at once. Even seasoned wine pros will tell you they’re still learning.