With years of tasting experience and opening bottles of all sorts of wines, I know that drinking what you like is the most important part of your relationship with wine.
Tasting wines can be a rather expensive hobby. Your palette is your palette, and your taste is your taste. Spending money on wines you aren't sure you're going to like is a risk. The more flexible your tastes are, the more enjoyment you may have, but having some back pocket information about what you DO like can help stop you wasting money on wines you don't like. You can do that by remembering these four words, "Be Open" and "Take Note".
Be open: Appreciation is a keyword for expanding your palette and experiencing flavors. For example, if you only like red wine, or only like white wine, what is it about your choice that makes it the only thing you like? Assuming that it is the flavor that is most appealing, try getting more specific about the flavor. Ask yourself; what are the fruit flavors, and what is the acidity level that makes it so appealing? Also to consider is the smell of the wine and the finish. Is it easy to swallow and you instantly want to fill your mouth with more? Or do you like to savor the aftertaste and experience the change in flavors from when the wine enters your mouth, covers your tongue and is finally swallowed?
If you want more guidance on how to perfect a tasting, take one of our tasting tours!
Take note: Taking the time to truly experience what you like, and making mental, or written notes of what qualities you like, gives you a deeper appreciation, and a way to focus your attention on specific details.
This can be expanded to help you find other wines that have these same or similar characteristics, broadening your palette and the scope of your innate likes, and growing your "What You Like" repertoire.
Happy tasting!
By Camilla Radford-Furman | Flavors of Paris Wine Maven