tasting tips

Here are some quick tips to help develop your taste buds when drinking wine.

> Sweetness is tasted by the tip of the tongue, if you can't get it straight away it probably means the wine is dry.

> The presence of tannins usually has a drying affect on the mouth, similar to the effect that you get when drinking tea or eating bananas.

> Acidity counterbalance sweetness and alcohol. So a dry, low alcohol wine will seem more acidic than a sweet, high alcohol wine. Basically "sweetness big, acidity small" - "sweetness small, acidity big".

> Finish refers to how long an aftertaste of the wine lingers. One to three seconds would be a short finish, more than 10 seconds would be a long finish.

So the next time someone describes a wine as dry, high acidity with a long finish you can know if they are talking rubbish or not!