There are several rules to wine tasting and if they are applied and followed, then that will help you enrich your wine tasting experience. There are essentially three factors involved in wine tasting - appearance, flavor and taste. These three factors are enough to help you decide and also to make you pose like an expert when dining with friends and family. You can know a lot about a wine just by observing its appearance. The wine should be poured into a clear transparent glass and placed in front of a light, so that you can perfectly determine the color of the wine. Please remember that wine colors vary a great deal, even if they belong to the same variety. A red wine is not always red and a white wine can contain different color tones that may not be immediately discernible.If you are able to find more colors in a white wine, then it means it has more flavor and age. Again, like red wine, most white wines are not truly white. Quite often, a white wine tends to show up more as a green or a yellow in color. A brown white wine may be an indication that the wine is spoilt. Both red wines and the white wine become lighter as they age. Red wines that are lighter in tone are indeed the perfect wines. The smell of the wine is also critical to judge the taste of wines. Start swirling the wine in your glass that will help you in visually examining the body of the wine and also sniff the smell emanating out of it. You can get a first taste of the wine by taking a quick whiff of the wine as it swirls. If you like what you smell, take a second deeper whiff of the wine.

You should concentrate on the smell of the wine and without attempting to take a bigger taste of the wine, simply reflect on what you have smelt. After you complete the wine tasting steps outlined above, think about the food you will be having and whether or not you think the wine will stand up to that food. It is certainly not bad etiquette to reject wine. As a matter of fact, many restaurants and bars will be impressed by your expertise on wines. Resorting to elaborate wine tasting can be seen as an important social trait and can win you new friends. Wine-tasting is becoming a popular social activity with regular events happening not only at wineries, but in aristocratic shopping centers, high-end grocery stores etc.

An experienced tasting-room consultant says that when, as a wine taster, you arrive at a tasting room, a staff member should set up few glasses and inform you about the wines that are available that day. He advises you never to feel afraid to ask questions about the wines or to carry a pad and pencil and make some notes. You will have to taste gradually from light to heavy and from dry to sweet. In other words, you will taste white wines, then red wines and finally the dessert wines. There's no hard rule that requires you should taste each wine you are offered.You can certainly ignore the wines that do not appeal to you. It is also not necessary to fully drink all the wine you taste. You will find in most tasting rooms refuse buckets placed not far from your elbow. You can, after tasting, discreetly pour the remains into that container.

Dumping the excess wine is not lack of manners, but there are other behaviors you should watch out. When the wine pourer is busy with other guests, do not impatiently refill the glass yourself. Secondly, do not take a sip and loudly proclaim your negative opinion for all present to hear. Some tasting rooms levy a fee for wine tasting, which may be to meet the expenses for buying a glass or towards the cost of a bottle. Most other tasting rooms, the sampling for wine tasting is free. Do not wear perfume or use lotions with strong fragrances when attending a tasting. The scents will interfere with your senses of smell and taste and you will not be able to properly discern the taste.

At a wine tasting session, women and older guests should be served first and then men and finally the host. Limit the number of tasters that can comfortably fit into the room. A crowd around the tasting table can be distractive and guests should not be rushed into sipping when pouring a glass of wine. Guests might get thirsty and therefore it is not wrong to have bottle of water at hand. Drinking water may also be needed by those that want to rinse their mouths between sipping different wines. Remember to provide something into which your guest can discard their rinse water. Unsalted water crackers or still preferably unflavored French bread may be provided for palate cleansing during the tasting session. Do not serve stronger foods till after the wine tasting is over. Please remember that the proper way to hold any style of wine glass is only by the stem. This will keep your fingerprints off the bowl and also your hand from heating the wine.

Avoid smoking during or just before a wine tasting session as that will completely destroy your sense of taste and render you unfit to taste your wines. The smoke and odor of cigarettes or cigars not only interferes with the enjoyment of the taste but will spoil the smell of the wines. It can also be resented by other guests including the smokers. Bubble gum, chewing gum and breath mints will also affect and alter the taste of wine. Be sure to rinse your mouth well with water and free it from all odors before beginning wine tasting.

Find a good local wine shop and be loyal to it and never attempt changing places needlessly and too often. Identify a shop where activity, passion and experience are in evidence and when you find one, steadfastly stick with it. As a wine taster, you should taste wine as regularly as possible. An occasional sip here and a sip there do not help much to train your palate. Effective wine tasting is done when you are in a group and the chattier the place is the more you will enjoy the session. Avoid all wine shop where the crowd is thin and business not brisk.

Here are some simple rules for wine tasters to adhere to. Find a good local wine shop and be loyal to it and never attempt changing places needlessly and too often. Identify a shop where activity, passion and experience are in evidence and when you find one, steadfastly stick with it. As a wine taster, you should taste wine as regularly as possible. An occasional sip here and a sip there do not help much to train your palate. Effective wine tasting is done when you are in a group and the chattier the place is the more you will enjoy the session.

Avoid all wine shop where the crowd is thin and business not brisk. You must necessarily learn to write a tasting note. It is said that a person never really gets to know what he precisely thinks until he writes it down. Taking a tasting note forces you to pay attention to what is in the glass but then a note should be short and useful. For a wine taster, wine is not only something to drink, but also something to think about. There is plenty of worthwhile knowledge to be gained by reading some well-written wine books.