The first thing evaluated by the taster is color and appearance of a wine. For a correct vision it's necessary to follow some rules: primarily, a glass should have correct form and size; secondarily, napkin on which the glass is should be white to reinforce the contrast of the color of the wine and background and helps to evaluate better the appearance of the drink.

No difference, which wine you taste – red, white, rose or champagne... First should be evaluated transparency, then – color, after that – consistence and the forth is “sparkling”, sure for sparkling wine only.

Transparency — wine should be clear and transparent without suspensions or sediments (if not normal for wine of the type), residential sparkling in faint red wine and aged white wine. They differ — not-transparent, rather transparent, transparent (for red wine), crystal (for white wine with bright shine), shiny (for sparkling wine).

Color — colors of red wine are various – from purple-red, almost violet, normal for young wines, to ruby-red, pomegranate-red, orange-red for old ones. So according to the color it's possible to find out the age of the wine. Rose wine differs as light-rose, cherry- and dark-rose, everything depends on the way of production, region and sorts of grape used for it. However it's necessary to remember that the life of rosė is short. As for white wines, the first thing that we see is that they are never white. Light green-yellow tint or almost transparency of wine show that the wine is young. Prawn-yellow tells about some age or aging in oak casks. Golden-yellow means a significant age of white wine or sweetness. Amber tint is common to old wine or noble sweet.

Consistence — speaking about consistence of wine, we mean its viscosity, fluidity, glycerin content, alcohol and sugar. Fluidity of wine can be different – while turning the glass wine can stay on the walls producing effect of Margoni, leaving “legs” or “tears”. By consistence wines can be liquid, weak, medium, oily and viscous.

Sparkling (perlage) — for tasting of champagne and sparkling wine the most important visual analysis is state of sparkles and their activity. There are following characteristics: size of sparkles – big, medium, small, quantity of sparkles – few, average, much, time of perlage – long, medium, short.

Aroma and taste are the most important part of wine tasting. When wine is poured into a glass – smell it and don't be afraid to say what you felt, concentrate at your perceptions and try to understand what remembers you this aroma. In the process of tasting one can find three types of aroma – prior – the aroma of the grape of which the wine is made. This aroma can be evaluated without pouring wine into glass, just opening a bottle. Second aroma appears while fermentation. Third aroma comes in the process of aging of wine, actually this is the result of change of two first. Wine is poured into a glass, then it's necessary to turn the glass and leave for a bit, then inhale the aroma.

Intensity — characterizes the force of the aroma, its depth. There are not intensive enough, a bit intensive, medium intensive, intensive and very intensive aroma.

Complexity — means plural aromatic families in one wine like fruity, flower, spices, mineral... There are following types: not complex enough, slightly complex, very complex.

Quality of aroma — can tell us about characteristics of the vintage, wine-makers skills and terms of storage of wine. There are – rough, slightly rough, medium quality, good and excellent wine.

Description Place your nose as deep as possible into the glass and say the first coming to your mind from the perception – this is the most useful way to feel aroma. There are millions of aroma:

• fruity — banana, apple, raspberry, peach, apricot, plum etc.;
• flower — rose, tobacco, violet, jasmine…;
• vegetation — fresh grass, tea, wet or dry leaves, hay…;
• winy — fermentation aroma;
• spicy — cinnamon, pepper, lavender, basil, vanilla…;
• bouquet — animal tone, cats urine, meat, fresh blood, tree, caoutchuk, oak, pine, smoke and smoked food, roasted bread, coffee, chocolate, cheese, butter, honey and so on;
• mineral — light smoke, wet rubble, mineral water, soda, dust;
• ether — tar, nail varnish, benzol, «acetone»;
• aromatic — grape sort aroma for aromatic grapes (muscat, malvasia, gewurtstraminer);
• simple — straight aroma without nuances.

You too try to smell something interesting in your glass – just don't invent anything! The main in this stage of tasting is to concentrate and not only feel but describe correctly express the feeling. Make the wine aroma material! This is not easy but very captivating. Don't taste the wine, only smell – as long as you need to understand and evaluate its aroma.

At place of tasting the air should be absolutely neuter without any additives. As regular, the air is conditioned to avoid penetration odors from street or tobacco. By the way – you should never smoke in the area where wine is kept or sold – tobacco smoke kills wine. If you go to a tasting never use perfume, strong odors can embarrass yourself or your colleagues.

Tasting wine we get knowledge of its taste, first of all, then – heaviness or lightness. After that its stability. Taste perceptions are concentrated on the tongue: sweetness on its tip, sour taste there where the tongue ends, closer to larynx, acidity stays on the surface and on the both sides of the tongue, salty taste – on the sides.

Lets start. First two-three seconds after coming of wine into your mouth are called the phase of attack – this is the time to feel sweetness of the wine. The second phase – walk in the mouth – is a bit longer than the first one, and now sour, acidity or salt (mineralization) of the drink are felt. The third and the last phase for the final impression.

How pass and understand these phases correctly? Make a small drink at keep the wine inside your mouth, then let the wine to walk around your cavity and saturate it. Lick your lips and inhale some air to mix it with wine. One more time walk the wine around your mouth and only after this swallow it slowly, part by part. This simple operation will take you several seconds.

The taste of the wine is made of balance between characteristics of mildness (sugar, alcohol, roundness) and roughness (acidity, tannins, mineral substances).

Sugar — let you know what wine you taste dry, semi-dry, semi-sweet, sweet or sickly sweet.

Alcohol — these are felling of warmness and dryness in the mouth. There are light, slightly warming, mildly warming, warming or alcoholic wine.

Roundness — is feeling of gentleness, freshness and being of wine even after swallow it. Wine can be angular, a bit round, mildly round, round and silk.

Acids — create feeling of freshness and provoke salivation, don't permit receptors take habit of drink or food. They differ following categories: plate, slightly fresh, mildly fresh, fresh and acid.

Tannins — is perception of viscosity and tartness drying additionally mouth cavity. The categories are following: weak, low tannins, mild tannins, tannin and tart.

Mineral substances — feels like drinking mineral water (soda, salt) and stimulation of salivation. Wine can be of on taste, low mineral, mild mineral, mineral and very mineral.

Balance — according to equilibrium of characteristics of mildness and roughness of wine we get evaluate its balance. There are slightly balanced, mildly balanced, balanced.

Intensity of taste — characterized by brightness of taste feeling. There are following categories: not enough intense, low intense, mildly intense, intense and very intense taste.

Taste duration — characterized by duration of feelings after swallow before salivation. Measured in Kaudal (I kaudal = 1 sec). There are short,slightly long, mildly long and long tastes.

Quality — means absence of default. It can be low, medium, medium well, good or excellent.

Structure — is general impression of mildness and roughness. There are poor, weak, full body, large and heavy structures.

State of development — is real state of wine and its potential. It can be immature, young, ready to drink or store, mature (should be drunk as age will damage it) or old.

Harmony — is summarizing and characterizes wine with all the previous points. There are following categories: weakly-harmonized, mildly-harmonized, harmonized.

The essential is said and I'd add from Alexander Dumas: “Wine is intellectual part of eating, meat is just material”. So to know taste wine first is necessary to train intellect. Develop imagination. Learn to express correctly ideas and feelings. And taste, taste, taste... Don't forget, that our life is too short to drink bad wine.