| When you have a wine tasting party or you taste | | | | heaviness of the wine. |
| wine with your friends it is very important to | | | | The varietal wines present an aroma of the |
| serve the wine in the proper order. The | | | | grapes. A good wine taster will be able to tell the |
| appropriate order of wine tasting goes like this. | | | | varietal blends by the grape smell. Integration is |
| Elderly tasters are always served first, no matter | | | | also considered by a wine taster. Integration |
| what the gender is. Women will be served next. | | | | includes many different components such as acid, |
| The men should be served after the women. The | | | | tannin, alcohol and others. These components |
| host is always served after everyone in the | | | | must all be in balance. The proper term when a |
| room has a glass. | | | | wine is in balance with these components is |
| When you taste different wines you also have to | | | | 'harmonious fusion'. |
| think about the order of the wines being tasted. If | | | | When a wine's quality is assessed the term |
| you taste heavy or sweet wines before light | | | | expressiveness is used. This is when the aromas |
| wines they may leave a taste in your mouth. This | | | | and flavors are well defined in the wine and clearly |
| is because they tend to dominate the flavor. | | | | projected through the taste. |
| A wine taster must taste the lighter wines first or | | | | Scoring a Wine |
| their taste buds will be skewed for tasting other | | | | There is a set system when you score wines. It |
| wines. The order wines should be tasted is as | | | | is important to compare the merits of different |
| follows: sparkling, light white, heavy white, roses, | | | | wines. Different aspects are often weighed when |
| light red, heavy red, and sweet wine. | | | | you score wines. It is important to know how to |
| If you have never tasted the wine it can be hard | | | | score wines when you taste them with your |
| to know if it is heavy and if it should not be | | | | friends. The aspects you will look at in the wine |
| tasted first. You should assess the wines by other | | | | include the appearance, the smell, also known as |
| characteristics such as the nose, color, and | | | | the nose, the palate or taste, and the overall |
| appearance. | | | | taste of the wine. |
| Assessing Characteristics | | | | Not all wine scoring systems are the same. Some |
| When you assess wine there are a few things to | | | | are weighted differently. For example, the |
| consider. The sweeter and heavier a wine it is | | | | appearance may be 15% of the score and the |
| you will be able to tell. This is by the swirling | | | | nose may be 35%. The nose of the wine being |
| method. Red wines that are sweet and heavy will | | | | better on one glass of wine may make the wine |
| leave swirls on the glass, also known as 'legs'. This | | | | score higher. Most critics have their own |
| is why you want to drink your red wines out of a | | | | preferred system. It is important to come up |
| bigger bowl shaped glass. You need to be able to | | | | with a system before you begin wine tasting so |
| swirl the glass to assess the sweetness and | | | | you and your tasters are not confused. |