Tasting wine properly is the fastest way to work out what you actually like. Most people skip the method entirely: buy a load of bottles, get some friends round, and drink. Enjoyable, but the only thing you learn is that you have a headache. You end up back where you started.
There is a method, and it takes an afternoon to learn. Here it is.
Why Bother
Tasting properly lets you name what you are drinking, which is what leads you to your own preferences. It takes years to get good at it, but the basics below will get you most of the way. After that you can order in a restaurant without guessing.
It also works as a group activity. Plenty of places run tastings, but doing it at home with your own people is better, provided you set it up properly.
Doing it alone has its own advantage: no distractions, so all your attention goes on the glass. That is how you learn fastest.
What You Need
Glasses, several different wines, and something to spit into.
You do not need special glasses. The ones you own will do, as long as there is room to swirl. For the spittoon, any jug will do. You are free to swallow, but the aftertaste builds up and starts flattening everything that follows, so save that for the ones you really like. And do not wear anything you mind staining.
Setting The Room Up
This is the step people skip, and it matters more than the glassware.
The room wants to be quiet and not crowded. Noise genuinely affects how people taste. It also needs to be free of strong smells, so if you have been cooking, do not do this in the kitchen. Total neutrality is impossible, but avoid anything overpowering.
Get plenty of light in, daylight if you can. You need to see the colour clearly.
Serve at the right temperature: whites and rosés at 7 to 10 C, reds at 12 to 18 C. If you do not want to be precise about it, use the 20-20 rule. Put the red in the fridge twenty minutes before serving, and take the white out twenty minutes before.
The Method
Three steps: look, smell, taste. Keep bread or plain crackers to hand and eat a little between wines to clear your palate.
1. Appearance
Pour a small measure, about 50ml. You need room to swirl, so do not fill the glass.
Look at it against a white background, a wall or a napkin, because anything else will skew what you see. Look from three angles: straight on for the overall colour, from the side for clarity, and tilted away from you for intensity at the rim.
The colour tells you about age. Reds pick up orange, brick and amber tones as they mature, while purple means young. Whites go the other way, deepening from greenish-yellow when young to gold and amber with age. Young rosés are pink with a purple edge, older ones go towards salmon and brown.
Now swirl it. You will see the wine run back down the glass in streaks, known as legs or tears. These tell you about alcohol and sugar content, and nothing whatsoever about quality, despite what you may have been told. Higher alcohol gives you slower, thicker legs. Temperature and even how clean the glass is will change them too.
2. Smell
Swirl the glass for about ten seconds first. The aromatics need moving before they will come out.
One common mistake: people sniff the moment the glass is poured and get the cork rather than the wine. Because smell is so tied to memory, that first impression sticks. Swirling first avoids it.
Get your nose right into the glass and take a couple of short sniffs. You are assessing two things.
Intensity first. Light, medium or pronounced. If you can smell it from a distance, it is pronounced. If you have to get right in, it is light.
Then the aromas themselves. Note what you actually smell, and be specific. Fruit, citrus, spice, herbs, smoke, earth. Vague words like woody or elegant tell you nothing you can use later. Younger wines tend towards fruit and older ones towards spice and savoury notes, but that is a broad generalisation and there are plenty of exceptions.
3. Taste
Now the part you came for. Pay attention to what happens as the wine crosses your palate.
Start with body. Move it around your mouth and notice how it feels: thin and watery, or thick and coating. Fuller body usually means more alcohol, though not always.
Then sweetness. Be careful not to confuse it with fruitiness, which is a different thing entirely. A wine can taste of ripe fruit and still be bone dry. If there is no actual sugar there, it is dry.
Then acidity. Take a small sip and open your mouth slightly. The more your mouth waters afterwards, the higher the acidity. Little reaction means a softer wine.
If it is a red, note the tannin as well, which shows up as a drying grip on your gums rather than as a flavour.
Last, the finish. Count the seconds it stays with you after you swallow. Under three seconds is short. Around thirty is long, and a long finish is one of the clearest markers of a serious wine.
Write all of it down in your own words. That is what turns an evening of drinking into something you can actually use.
Now go and set one up. The full range covers North Macedonia and the Southern Rhône, which is enough contrast for a decent tasting, and the cases give you a set of bottles in one go.