Wine tasting comes to Cardiff

How to Taste Wine

If you’re going to the trouble to find a good wine, you need to know how to taste it properly. Take a look at our handy guide for some tips

1) Glass:

Start with a clean glass. Tulip shaped glasses with a wider bottom and a narrower top are recommended.

2) Colour:

Tilt your glass and observe the colour of the wine. Is it red, ruby, maroon or burgundy? Is the colour deep or weak? All these aspects will affect the taste of the wine.

3) Smell:

Every wine has its own unique smell. Gently swirl your glass (holding the stem) to release the aromas and get air into the wine, then take a big sniff. Smelling it should help enhance the flavour when you eventually drink it.

4) Taste It:

Sip your wine, savouring the flavour. Experts advice attempting to get even more air into the wine at this point by inhaling as you hold the wine in your mouth. This takes some practise to get it right and if done incorrectly, can be quite messy.

5) Get ready for the next wine:

So here’s the not so pleasant part. A lot of wine connoisseurs say the best way to clear your palette and avoid mixing wine flavours is not to swallow your mouthful of wine, but to spit it out. Buckets will be provided at tastings where this is recommended. If you choose instead to swallow the wine, small sips are advised if you’re sampling a lot of wines. This will prevent flavours mixing and stop you getting too tipsy.

6) Aftertaste:

What flavours linger afterwards? If you really want to take it seriously, you could take notes about your experiences with each wine, or at least make a mental note of the wines you enjoyed so you can find them in the future. Cheers!

Picking wines for the Christmas season couldn’t be easier

Many different varieties of wine will be available to try at the tasting

The Millennium Centre will be hosting a wine tasting event this week in which members of the public can sample and purchase up to 76 varieties of wine, all in one venue.

Held at the Centre’s Ffresh restaurant on November 26, the event will offer plenty of opportunities for both wine buffs and amateur tasters to discover new wines from around the globe.

Cardiff wine merchants Viader Vintners will be hosting two tasting sessions at 12 and 2 o’clock. Viader Vintners owner, Gilbert Viader says that the wines on offer have been selected especially for the occasion. “We’ve picked some old favourites which we know the customers will enjoy and we’ve also included some lines with Christmas in mind.”

Tickets are priced at £5 each.