Tilt the glass to your nose and inhale deeply (don’t be shy) at the rim.  Do the same at the center of the glass; your nose should actually breach the bowl.  Some scents will be present in the center that are absent from the rim and vice versa, so it is important to sample from both.  Now for the fun part: holding the stem, rotate the glass in small circles and swirl the wine around.  For those of us who are less coordinated, set the glass on the table and keep the base flat against it while you slide the glass in circles.  Now repeat your inhalations at the rim and the center.  You should notice some remarkable transformations in the aromas of the wine now that you have agitated it.

The scents you are looking for will be brief and fleeting.  You will find yourself on the verge of finding the perfect descriptions just as the sensation fades.  Take your time; this sniff may not have given you all of the answers, but you are one step closer to the one that will.  You are a natural, after all.  We all are.  Smell is the sense most closely tied to memory.  Begin free associating, developing a stream-of-consciousness list of related aromas: fruity, citrusy, strawberries, craberries, etc.  Most of these words will be inaccurate.  What you are doing is allowing your brain to form associations until it finds the right ones.  Be as specific as possible, and do not be afraid of sounding silly.  If you detect the familiar aroma of Flintstones vitamins, say so.  The goal is not to sound sophisticated; the goal is to be specific and dig deep.  Dig through your memories and form new ones.

Tasting is only one-third of wine tasting.  The whole process begins with the eyes: your eyes and the wine’s eye.  Tilt the glass away from you and hold it over a well-lit, white surface, like a table cloth.  The oval of liquid that you are looking at is referred to as the “eye.”  The center of the eye, where the wine is at its deepest, is wher eyou will look for the wine’s color.  Record your impressions in your wine journal.  Is your red wine a bright ruby, or is it a faded brownish-red?  Is your white wine a straw color, or is it almost orange.

There will be a more transparent circle around the edge of the eye; this is called the meniscus.  It will be barely visible in most whites, clear or pink in most young reds, and brownish in aged reds.  The most important part of the visual stage of wine tasting is to insure that the wine is free of sediments.  Ruby and violet are both good colors, so long as they are not clouded.

As you swirl your wine and tilt it, you may see clear ribbons running down the sides of your glass.  These are called legs and they used to be considered an indicator of quality.  Now we know that they are caused by a combination of factors: viscosity, sugar content, and evaporation rates.  You can note their presence and character in your wine journal, but do not let their absence ruin your wine tasting experience.