You won’t believe your taste buds!

The mouth is the place where all our efforts find satisfaction, so it is no coincidence that the mouth is where the most complete examination in wine tasting takes place. By following these few hints and tips, you will learn to understand and appreciate the main characteristics of wines, enabling you to enjoy them fully. First, use your mouth to look for the agreeableness of the wine and a balance in tastes. Remember that the tip of the tongue is where we perceive sweetness, and acidity is felt in the central lateral part. The saltiness is sensed in the side walls of the mouth and bitterness at the back. Apart from in the case of sweet and sparkling wines, no single one of these tastes should prevail over the others. The quality of a wine should always be judged by how many seconds the taste persists in the mouth: the longer the flavor remains, the better and fuller the product. You should remember that smoke and strong perfumes should always be banned at a wine-tasting as they can alter ones olfactory perception! Do not spend too long straining to find certain “sensations” either, just relax your senses and take a deep breath.  Eating some bread or drinking some water can also help. If there are many wines to be tasted, take some breaks and use the special containers that are usually provided to spit out the tastings instead of drinking the wine. First, however, be sure to let the wine coat your entire mouth, as if you were rinsing it… it may not be pretty to look at, but it is very useful for activating all of your taste buds! Always hold the glass by the stem or the base.  This will avoid dirtying the glass and, more importantly, avoid heating it up. Finally, bear in mind that a wine-tasting never ends. After the first sip has been taken, the wine which is left inside the glass continues to evolve, particularly when tasting great vintage red wines!