See My Reviews of Sonoma Valley Wineries

Sonoma Wineries

Sonoma Wine

Sonoma Lodging

Sonoma Valley Links

Tasting Wine

Tasting wine should be the funniest part of the whole wine experience. You go to Vineyards to taste wine, you buy bottles of wine for your friends because you hope it is a good tasting wine. There are a couple steps to tasting wine properly. The first couple times you do the steps below, you may feel a little uncomfortable, but the more you do it, the more you realize you can really get a better feel for if you will enjoy the wine or not. At the least learn to taste wine correctly to not look silly in the company of those who do. The following steps are out of the book, Oldman's Guide to Outsmarting Wine, by Mark Oldman.

Tasting Wine Step 1:

After smelling the wine and take a small sip and hold it in your mouth. You want to roll the wine around your tongue. Try to find what smells are echoed in the taste.

Tasting Wine Step 2:

After trying to match up the tastes with the smells of the wine, start to pay attention to the aftertaste or finish. Some things to look for are the tannins , balance and complexity.

Tasting Wine Step 3:

Some recommend, that after the first small taste you should re-smell and re-taste the wine. The purpose is to now try to match what you tasted back with what you smelled. I would not be against doing this many times, just not in public.