Tips to get the most out of wine-tasting

To really enjoy wine-tasting, the experience needs to be more than gulp-and-go.

There are basic steps to wine-tasting. First, you decide what you want to try at each winery. Wines are listed and poured in a certain order -- drier to sweeter, with fuller-bodied reds at the end -- for a reason. This tasting order allows the essence of each wine to come through, instead of being covered up by the previous wine.

After the wine is poured, hold the glass up to the light and look at the wine.

If red, is it a deep, rich red? If white, how clear or how yellow is it?

In a red wine, a deep red may mean more tannin taste. In a white, more color may mean a more complex wine.

Looking at the color will prepare you for the next step -- sniffing the wine (or trying the "nose" on the wine).

That means lifting the glass to your nose and sniffing deeply. What do you smell? Cherries, apricots, mangos, pineapple or grapefruit? Or do you smell something not quite so nice?

As Shawn Verity, a pourer at Red Newt Cellars on the Seneca Lake Wine Trail in Hector comments, "It's like your mother said, 'If it doesn't smell good, you may not want to drink it.' "

Quite often, the smell is an indication of how the wine will taste, so if the smell doesn't appeal to you, the taste probably won't either.

Now comes the tasting part. Your first sip gets rid of other tastes already in your mouth. The second sip is more representative of the wine's true flavor.

Don't swallow right away; let the wine sit on your taste buds. Different parts of your mouth sense different flavors, so you get the full flavor of the wine by letting it linger in your mouth before you swallow.

If the second sip doesn't appeal to you, then don't feel obligated to continue. As Jim Ormiston, a pourer at Standing Stone Vineyards in Hector says, "Don't be afraid to sip and spit."

This advice becomes even more important if you plan on tasting at several wineries over the course of a day, Ormiston says. You need to pace yourself and there is a reason for those dump buckets on wine-tasting counters.

Before moving on to the next wine, take a few seconds to jot down your impressions of the one you just tried. Note how the wine tasted and smelled.

Use words that mean something to you so that you will remember later (after many, many glasses of wine) which wines you want to purchase for your own enjoyment.

Wine servers have some general suggestions. Wine-tasting should be done au naturel -- refrain from wearing heavy perfumes or colognes.

In order to have time to do thoughtful, slow-paced tastings, consider going on a weekday when the wineries are less busy. Saturday is the most hectic day at wineries.

Your wine-tasting experience at each winery will make a more lasting impression if you take the time to get to know the wine.

Jeff Richards' wine column appears each Thursday on the Twin Tiers Life Food Page. For comments or questions, he can be reached at 607/271-8279 or 800/836-8970, Ext. 279, or e-mail: thewineguy