Simple Wine Drinking Tips for a Better Wine Experience

1. Let your wine sit.

After pouring wine into your glass, let it sit in your glass for at least 1 to 2 minutes before drinking it, or until you see most of the little bubbles disappear.

The bubbles you see in the wine is CO2, which is a byproduct of the fermentation process. CO2 may also be added to wines by the winery, because it acts as a preservative. In its liquid form CO2 is called Carbonic Acid. When you pour wine into your glass you will see lots of little bubbles which is the CO2 (carbonic acid) escaping the wine. Carbonic acid has a very harsh taste, so waiting a couple of minutes after the wine is poured, will give you a smoother tasting wine experience. In fact this is what aeration does, it strips the CO2 our of the wine.

2. Coat your wine glass.

As wines today are becoming higher in alcoholic percentage compared to wines in the past, it is critical to downplay the perception of alcohol in maximizing the enjoyment of wine. Alcohol does in fact impede us from enjoying all of a wines flavors. Wine experts tell us to swirl your wine to release the aromas.Unfortunately, the major aroma that will be released first comes from the alcohol. The alcohol produces a medicinal taste that can be perceived quite easily and affects other aromas.

I would suggest instead of swirling your wine, coat your glass with the wine by gently holding the glass as horizontally as possible, while rotating it in your hand. The more you coat the glass with the wine, the more intense the wine drinking experience..

3. Serve your wine at colder temperatures.

Instead of serving or storing red wine at 62 degrees or higher as most experts recommend, I recommend storing and serving it at 55 degrees. Lowering the temperature to 55 degrees reduces the perception of alcohol. The wine will slowly warm up in the glass to 62 degrees,and avoid getting to temperatures in the mid to high 60's that promotes the perception of alcohol. Keeping your wine in your fridge at 55 degrees also helps with reducing oxidation better than any contraption on the market.

4. Use a large and deep wine glass.

Pouring 5oz of wine in a large 30oz glass vs a small glass typically 12oz to 15oz, will provide a more powerful tasting experience. In the 30 oz glass there is 25oz of capacity free for the aroma to occupy, while in the 12oz there would be only 7oz of capacity free for the aroma to occupy. The aroma in the smaller glass is escaping simply because there inst enough free capacity to contain it.

5. Approach.

The approach to wine can be just as important for its enjoyment, as the wine itself. We can be convinced that a wine is good simply by giving it importance. Think of a nice juicy fillet mignon that you are being served on a paper plate with plastic utensils. Your mind downplays the expected taste experience because it relates the fillet mignon to the cheap, low end place setting. That same fillet mignon served in a high end restaurant on fancy dinnerware, will taste better simply because your conditioned to equate a high end restaurant with great tasting food. Stemware does the same for wine. When you pour wine into a beautiful over sized crystal glass, your mind relates the wine's significance to the beautiful wine appropriate glass The same wine served in a typical 10 to 12oz clunker downplays the expectation regarding the wine's taste.

4 Tips to Taste Wine Like a Pro

1. Stay Hydrated

Super simple to do – just drink water more often than you normally do. Your nose has lots of tiny aroma receptors in mucous membranes and they can shrink up when you’re all dried out. Also, you lose saliva when you drink/spit wine so remember: a moist a tongue is a happy tongue!

2. Smell Everything

Smelling and ‘filing’ scents is important so you can recall them when you are tasting a wine. Smell your fresh blackberries, get your face right in there when you’re baking, and go nuts at a farmer’s market.

3. Practice Thinking

The trick to this one is to just ask yourself questions and not try to over analyse. Instead of searching your brain for the EXACT aroma or taste you’re experiencing, just ask yourself simple questions to guide yourself there. For example, we know that the wine is fruity and it smells like there is a sweetness to it, and it sort of just smells purple. Is it a berry, cherry, or plum smell that’s purple? It’s really hard to come up with the bulls-eye on your own so asking questions is easier and gets you to practice thinking.

4. Count The 5 Basic Traits On Your Hand

Sweetness, Acidity, Tannin, Alcohol, Body. Sweetness is easy to identify because we’ve all had sweet things in our mouth before – we hope so anyway. Acidity can be tricky but this is just measured by your mouth watering after you take a sip. Suck on a lemon and pay attention to what your mouth does. That’s acidity. Practice Acidity with Sauvignon Blanc. Tannin is the dry feeling around the roof of your mouth and your gums. Think of black tea. Alcohol will make the wine feel weighty in your mouth, and have a slight heat or burn. Body goes in tandem with alcohol and tannin levels and is more a ‘feeling’. Imagine drinking whipping cream vs. skim milk.

How to Choose a Sweet Tasting Wine

Mark Twain said, "There are no standards of taste in wine... Each man's own taste is the standard..." Sweet wines are often a person's initiation into wine drinking, but this doesn't make them inferior choices. Winemakers from around the world produce superior sweet, semi-sweet and fruity wines that are as well respected as dry wines and champagnes. Whether your preference is for a sweet wine or you're looking for a dessert pairing, consider your own taste to be the standard.

Look for an off-dry white wine like a Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Moscato or Asti Spumante. There is a range of sweetness within each varietal, from some being not very sweet to those that are considered dessert wines. Very sweet Rieslings are designated Beerenauslese, Eiswein or Trockenbeerenuslese. Asti is a sparkling wine that's a good introduction to wine drinking.

Try the slightly sweet or fruity red wines. Beaujolais, Syrah and Shiraz are fruity red wines, as is Italian Lambrusco, which should be served chilled.

Try a blush wine, such as White Zinfandel. Blush wines are pink, but they're made from red grapes whose skins are separated during the winemaking process. They're slightly sweet and pair well with light dinners.

Opt for a very sweet dessert wine. Late-harvest wines are made from grapes that have been left on the vine longer, so they're naturally sweet. French Sauternes and Hungarian Tokai fall into this category.

Finish a meal with a fortified port wine. To make port, alcohol is added to red wine for a more potent result. True ports come from Portugal. Vintage ports are matured in the bottle, and other ports are ready to be served as soon as they come to market. The variation in sweetness among different ports is not as pronounced as in other varietals.

The 3 most important things to look for on a wine label, according to an expert

With the infinite choices of varieties, vintages, terroirs, and tannins, buying wine can be a real minefield.

As a result, many of us end up scouring labels, hoping for some shred of information that might reveal the secrets of the liquid within.

However, wine labels can often be a red herring misleading when they are meant to inform.

In order to decipher wine labels once and for all, Business Insider spoke to one of Berry Bros. & Rudd 's resident wine experts, Felipe Carvallo.

Berry Bros. & Rudd is Britain's oldest wine and spirit merchant having traded from the same shop since 1698 and it holds two Royal Warrants for The Queen and The Prince of Wales.

 Watch out for generic food pairing recommendations

Although it may be tempting to buy wines that have a food pairing recommendation on the label, this can be a big red flag, according to Carvallo.

He said: "If it 'goes with pasta dishes' and other very generic serving suggestions, [this can imply that] it's a very neutral wine that will go with most things.

"Often you're going to get something pretty middle-of-the-road, nothing that's going to stick out too much," he added.

 Check the alcohol level

It's not normally something that most of us think to do, but checking the alcohol percentage can be a good indicator of how sweet a wine is.

"Generally speaking, if you've got a very low alcohol level on a white wine it's probably an indication that there's a little bit of sugar left in the wine that hasn't been fermented," Carvallo says.

This can often put people off wines like Riesling, which can sometimes be unpleasantly sweet to some palates.

However, according to Carvallo, dry Rieslings can be some of the best, most rewarding wines in the world but you'll need to check the alcohol level to find them.
Don't worry if the grape variety isn't listed

"One of the things we get here [Berry Bros. & Rudd] a lot is 'I hate Chardonnay but I love Chablis,'" Carvallo says.

However, the grape variety in both Chardonnay and Chablis is Chardonnay. The key thing to remember is that Chablis is produced in Burgundy, France, but the Chardonnay grape can be grown all over the world from California to South Australia and will taste different wherever it's grown.

"Particularly in the Old World, a lot of French wine, for example, will label a wine based on the place that it's from, not the grape variety.

"Putting the grape variety on the label is very much a New World phenomenon."

Therefore, you shouldn't be put off if you can't see the grape variety listed; there are actually a number of other factors that can completely change the taste of what you're drinking, including where it was produced.

Wine Tasting Tips For Beginners

The art of wine tasting can seem very complex to outsiders. Its practice is as ancient as its production and its terminology is constantly evolving.

As overwhelming as it may seem at first, there are a number of tips and insider secrets to get you through your first tasting - without being noticed as the beginner!

In the glass
It’s necessary to tilt the glass slightly in order to see the color variations of the wine  from the center to the rim of the glass. Intensity of color gives clues to the variety and the age of the wine, but not quality. A young white might be straw-colored in the center and have a green-tinged edge, whereas a brownish tinge at the edge suggests an older red.

Smell
Sommeliers are trained to notice the smallest differences in aromas. As a beginner, try to pin-point if your wine is fruity, floral, spicy etc. Swirling the glass gently (being careful of your white shirt!) can help bring out the aromas. 

Taste
Take a decent mouthful rather than a tiny sip. Then swish the wine around your tongue & teeth and note the taste. What flavors stand out to you? Does the wine seem balanced? Acidic? Take your time, this is meant to be an enjoyable experience! Spitting the wine into an empty glass in generally the norm, but swallowing is also fine.

Take some time to reflect on the aftertaste. A lingering taste can often be found in good quality wines. Most importantly, do you want more?  

Score
Wines are generally scored on a scale of 100, similar to school grades. A wine scoring 85 + is considered good, whereas a wine scoring 50 is like an F grade. However, taste is very personal and not everyone is a fan of the numerical scale.

That’s it - you’ve survived your first wine tasting. Now on to the next bottle!