The more wines you taste, the more you will learn about wine.
As they say, “Practice makes perfect.” Practice is the most important thing you can do to learn about wine. Your homework assignment: Stop in at a wine shop like Weimax Wines, K&L Wines, The Wine Club and the like. Ask the wine person to stock you up on a case of wine at reasonable prices. $20 or less to begin. Do half whites and half reds. I suggest you start with California wines. California wines are most accessible to find, and almost all the California varietals originated in other countries. Maybe Zinfandel is California’s only heritage grape. When you taste wines, do this: Smell the wine, chew the wine, swallow and ponder it until all signs of the wine disappear from your palate and nose. By the way, use some proper wine glasses whenever tasting wine. Take notes if you like. I use the Evernote App because I can take a photo and use the audio feature to record my thoughts.
Pascal Wagner, French Burgundy wine expert on how to taste wine
Taste and compare two or more wines
Moving on, how about opening two bottles of one varietal from different places, such as Napa Valley vs. Paso Robles. Use two wine glasses and compare and contrast the differences in the two wines. Even though wines might be the same varietal, they may taste vastly different. Another good idea to try with white wines is to compare stainless steel wines to oak barrel-aged wines. This comparison helps you learn about the influence of oak in wine. Chardonnay is the best choice for this activity. Ask your wine store person to help. Another interesting idea is to leave the red wines open and taste and compare them again a day later. Did things change in the wine?
Go to wine tastings
In the San Francisco area, there are several wine tastings each year. The Zinfandel Festival, Rhone Rangers, TAPAS, Family Wine Makers and others have major wine tasting events each year. You can spend 1 to 3 hours of tasting wines. At these tastings, not only can you taste wine but also talk with the winemakers. Use a spit cup to avoid swallowing your wine. Here is how to use a spit cup and why. Local Wine Events is a Website which lists wine events in your area.
Go to wine country
In the San Francisco Bay Area, wine country is all around us. Within an hour’s drive, we have wine country at our fingertips. Take a tour at a winery to see they make wine. Follow this up with tasting wine including whites, rosés, and reds at a few wineries. Use the tasting notes that the winery provides and add your notes. Don’t forget about that designated driver. Here is a guide to the California wine country.
Mendocino County wine country in Hopland, CA
Find the right wine shop
In step one, I mentioned a good wine shop is your starting point for learning about wine. Besides the wine shop staff being able to help you with your wine selections, a good shop has much more to offer. Almost all the good wine shops have regular wine tastings. Sign up and attend those now and then. You can taste wines for a small fee. Discussion with other tasters and the wine shop staff is helpful. A good wine shop also has newsletters and an informative Website detailing information about each wine they sell. See where we shop for wines. Wine Shop Map for San Francisco Bay Area
Start or join a wine club
The wine club has been the best activity I have participated in to learn more about wine. The opportunity to blind taste six wines of the same varietal at one sitting is an outstanding learning activity. We have complete details on starting a wine tasting club and conducting a wine tasting. See this resource. Then go out and organize your wine tasting club.
Wine books and wine magazines and wine blogs
These are at the bottom of my list, but they are useful. Nothing works as well as good practice, but reading about wine gets you motivated. My favorite wine blog is this one. Big surprise! I also like Wine Country Getaways, another big surprise. Wine Books
Books are great for learning about wine
Use Wine Apps
There are several wine Apps for your smartphone. Some of the favorites are Delectable and Vivino. These Apps are versatile and can help you decide on wine purchases and what others have to say about the wine. Post your reviews and comments, share them with your wine friends.
The Best way to learn about wine is to take some classes first. What the hell starting tasting wine without a minimum of knowledge about your palate. I work in the wine industry and the lack of knowledge is impressive in the USA.
So many people don’t make the simple difference between sweet (from sugar) and fruity (from the fruit).
So many people think this wine or this wine is sweet when it is not.
Because they do not know where and what is acid in their month. They don’t know how to find the bitter also.
So in your month you have : sugar (sweet), acid, salt, bitter, umami.
Learn to find them in your palate and them start to try to find them in the wine.
Then start to smell everything around you and memorize the odors.
A strawberry aroma in wine isn’t the same as the fruit itself. Perhaps closer, but only for really good wine.
And please, don’t try to learn about the chardonnay from all the cheap crap from California.
Over rip, acidified, oak chips etc… go for a Macon or a Chablis from Burgundy and you will start to learn about chardonnay. This is the basic, all the Somm, wine expert will tell you that.
Same with Sauvignon blanc, Kim Crawford is one of the worst one.
And for the Malbec, don’t believe the Malbec is from Argentina. Malbec is from CAHORS in FRANCE. ZINFANDEL from ITALY, etc….
WINE TASTING
IF you go to a big wine event, the best way to fast wines is to select one region or wine grape.
Example : Rhone valley, or Syrah. And you taste only that. If you are a beginner you won’t be able to taste more that 15 different wines. After that, you palate will be saturated, your nose too.
To clean you palate, go for some sparkling. For your nose = smell coffee pounder or beans.
Start always with the red. The high level of tannins for some of the wines will make your palate totally dry.
Go for a sparkling and white after. The acidity will clean and refresh your palate.
Don’t clean your glass with water. Wine contain glycerol, is a part of oil element. So yo can’t clean oil with water. Clean your glass with the new wine you will taste. But ONLY if it is a different one, more lighter than the previous one or if you were in red and you go in white.
Except that, no need to clean your glass.
Tasting 6 pinot noir, you don’t need to clean your glass in between. They are all PN. Just make sense.
Avoid your dry cracker when you taste wine. Have some fresh bread and a good cheese. Avoid bad/cheap cheddar. Gruyere is probably the best way.
Some “salami” could be also good.
Good luck
Thanks for the many good suggestions on learning about wine.
Joe