Wine oh wine, how you dance around my glass! Alright, enough with amateur poetry, here is a guide to help you figure out this swirling wine business.
So, why do we swirl in the first place? Well, the simplest answer is that it oxidizes the wine, which means combining oxygen, which in turn can enhance the flavor.
BUT, before you start swirling away and splashing all that wine over your shirt, there is a four step process to correctly taking in a glass of wine!
Step 1: SEE
You pour a glass of wine and take a sip. WRONG. Take at least a few seconds to observe the color of the wine. Is it a dark ruby color? A light pink? Depending on the grapes, where it was stored, and how it was aged, the color will vary. Take a few minutes to Google the kind of wine you’ve bought, the brand as well, and you might be able to find more information about the flavor profiles, how it was aged, etc.
STEP 2: SWIRL
Ugh, finally right? Time to swirl that beautiful glass of wine. That wine glass you’re holding is designed the way it is for two reasons, to let that wine soak up some oxygen and shoot that aroma straight to your nose! Make sure you hold the glass by the stem and give gentle swirls, nothing too aggressive! But you should know, too much oxygen added into the wine will cause it to go bad, that’s why hardcore wine drinkers will throw out a bottle of wine after opening it and won’t even try to preserve it for another day. I had on of those Rabbit corks that you put on and suck the oxygen out of which helps a little and might give you an extra day out of your bottle of wine.
So, why do we swirl? Well, adding oxygen to the wine will release ester and phenolic compounds that let you notice an increasing variety of aromas. What do we do now? Well, smell the darn wine already!
STEP 3: SNIFF
Next up, you can take a couple of sniffs. Hm, that just smells like wine to me! Blerg. Alright, well that happens to a lot of people. But most wines are full of fruit flavor. If you are drinking Merlot, think of plum, blackberry, do you smell anything? A bit of plum? If you are drinking a Chardonnay, think of pear, maybe even butter, does that help? Now, dig deeper, see if you smell any pepper, earth, tobacco, oak, and more. Search the web for your specific wine and see if you can find a flavor profile online that will help guide your nose.
If you are still having issues, try smelling some pepper, then smelling your wine, again, again, close your eyes, let the aromas slowly enter your nostrils, focus, let the rest of the world fade away…
STEP 4: SIP
Sip! Enjoy that beautiful tasting wine. And just like smelling for aromas, you will try doing the same things when tasting. Let the wine sit on your tongue for a moment, take small sips, see what flavors you can identify. Ripe melon? Cranberry? Tart? Cherry? Cinnamon? Clove? Keep trying. But, most importantly enjoy the darn stuff, put your feet up, invite some friends over, put on your favorite television show.
I find that wine is the best way to wind down after a long day and love putting on one of my fav shows or a movie and just relaxing. Darn, I think I need to run out a get a bottle right now!
By: Paul
Hey there, my name is Paul and I personally review the wine clubs on this website. They send them directly to my home, I crack them open, snap a few photos along the way, and let you know what my results are! Keep in mind, it’s just my personal thoughts, but I’ve tried a lot of wine clubs, so I know a thing or two.
By Paul, Wine Mind