How to Taste Wine Like a Sommelier

Most people drink wine. Sommeliers taste it. The difference isn't snobbery — it's attention. With a few simple techniques, you can unlock a whole new dimension of pleasure from every glass, and your experience on a wine tour will be transformed.

You don't need to memorise hundreds of grape varieties or pass an exam. You just need to slow down and pay attention to what's already in your glass.

Professional tasters use a systematic approach: See, Swirl, Smell, Sip. Each step builds on the last, and together they give you a complete picture of the wine.

Hold your glass by the stem (not the bowl — your hand warms the wine) and tilt it at a 45-degree angle against a white background. A white tablecloth or a piece of paper works perfectly.

What to look for:

• Colour intensity: Is it pale and translucent, or deep and opaque? Deeper colour generally means more concentration and body.
• Hue: Red wines range from purple (young) through ruby and garnet to brick-red and orange-brown (aged). White wines range from almost colourless through pale gold to deep amber.
• Clarity: Is the wine clear and bright, or hazy? Most commercial wines are filtered to clarity. Natural wines may be intentionally hazy.
• Legs: Swirl the glass and watch the wine run back down the sides. Thick, slow-moving "legs" or "tears" indicate higher alcohol or residual sugar — not quality, despite what you may have heard.

In Chile's valleys, you'll often see the difference between a coastal Casablanca Sauvignon Blanc (pale, almost water-white) and a Colchagua Carménère (deep purple-ruby) just from looking at the glass.

Swirling the wine exposes it to oxygen, which volatilises the aromatic compounds and releases them into the air above the glass. This is why a wide-bowled glass matters — it gives the aromas room to develop.

How to swirl without spilling:

Keep the base of the glass on the table and move it in small circles. Once you're confident, you can swirl in the air. Fill your glass no more than one-third full — this gives the aromas space to collect.

Take a quick sniff before swirling, then swirl and smell again. Notice how the aromas change and intensify.

Here's a fact that surprises most people: up to 80% of what we perceive as "taste" is actually smell. The flavours you experience when drinking wine are largely aromas detected retronasally — through the back of your throat as you swallow.

This is why smelling wine carefully before tasting it is so important.

How to smell wine properly:

Bring the glass to your nose and take a gentle sniff — don't inhale deeply like you're smelling perfume. Let the aromas come to you. Then take a longer, deeper sniff.

What to look for:

Wine aromas are typically grouped into three categories:

Primary aromas come from the grape itself:

• Fruit: citrus, stone fruit, tropical fruit, red berries, dark berries
• Floral: rose, violet, elderflower, jasmine
• Herbal: grass, green pepper, mint, eucalyptus

Secondary aromas come from fermentation:

• Yeast: bread, brioche, biscuit
• Lactic: butter, cream, yoghurt (especially in white wines that have undergone malolactic fermentation)

Tertiary aromas (also called "bouquet") develop with oak ageing and bottle age:

• Oak: vanilla, toast, cedar, smoke, coconut
• Oxidative: nuts, dried fruit, honey
• Reductive: leather, earth, mushroom, tobacco

Don't worry if you can't identify specific aromas at first. The goal is to notice what's there and build your vocabulary over time. On a guided tasting, your sommelier will help you identify what you're smelling.

Now you can finally drink it. But don't just swallow — take a small sip and let it coat your entire mouth.

The tasting process:

1. Take a small sip and hold it in your mouth for 5–10 seconds
2. Draw in a little air through pursed lips (this is the slurping sound you hear at tastings — it's not rude, it's technique). This aerates the wine further and intensifies the flavours
3. Move the wine around your mouth to coat all your taste receptors
4. Swallow (or spit, if you're tasting many wines) and pay attention to the finish

What to assess on the palate:

• Sweetness: Detected on the tip of the tongue. Most table wines are dry (no residual sugar), but some have a slight sweetness.
• Acidity: The mouthwatering, refreshing quality. High-acid wines feel crisp and lively; low-acid wines feel flat and flabby. Casablanca Sauvignon Blanc is famously high in acidity.
• Tannins: The drying, grippy sensation in red wines, felt on the gums and inside of the cheeks. Tannins come from grape skins, seeds, and oak. Cabernet Sauvignon has high tannins; Pinot Noir has low tannins.
• Body: The weight and texture of the wine in your mouth. Full-bodied wines feel rich and heavy; light-bodied wines feel delicate and lean.
• Alcohol: A warming sensation at the back of the throat. High-alcohol wines (above 14.5%) can feel "hot."
• Flavour intensity and complexity: How many different flavours can you detect? Do they evolve as you hold the wine in your mouth?

After you swallow, pay attention to how long the flavours linger. This is the "finish" or "length" of the wine.

A short finish (under 5 seconds) is a sign of a simple wine. A medium finish (5–15 seconds) is typical of good-quality wine. A long finish (15+ seconds) is the hallmark of a great wine — the flavours keep evolving and changing even after the wine is gone.

The best Chilean wines — a premium Colchagua Carménère, a top Maipo Cabernet, a great Casablanca Chardonnay — have finishes that last for 30 seconds or more.

Pace yourself: At a typical winery tasting, you'll try 4–6 wines. Spit if you need to — there's no shame in it, and it's the professional approach when tasting many wines in a day.

Take notes: Even a few words on your phone ("dark fruit, long finish, loved it") will help you remember what you tasted. Many wineries provide tasting sheets.

Ask questions: Your guide and the winery's sommelier are there to help. There are no stupid questions in a tasting room.

Eat something: Tasting on an empty stomach affects your perception and your sobriety. Most wineries offer bread, cheese, or charcuterie alongside tastings.

Trust your palate: Wine tasting is subjective. If you love a wine that the critics rate poorly, that's fine. If you don't enjoy a wine that everyone else raves about, that's fine too. Your palate is the only one that matters to you.

The more wines you taste, the more reference points you build. A great way to accelerate this is to taste wines side by side — a Casablanca Sauvignon Blanc next to a Maipo Cabernet, for example. The contrast makes the differences vivid and memorable.

On a Wine Chile Tours experience, you'll taste wines from multiple estates and often multiple valleys in a single day. By the end, you'll have a much richer vocabulary and a much deeper appreciation for what makes each region unique.

Ready to put these techniques into practice? Browse our tour packages and taste Chile's finest wines with expert guidance.