“Give it a nice swirl in the glass. You let the air in, to let the wine open up so it breathes. Essentially, you’re opening up the nose, letting the aromas out so you can smell it better. And repeat that a couple of times. You might not pick it all up on the first smell. Come back to it and think OK I got that initial berry fruit and then think what’s that next little fruit. So, give it another swirl and stick your nose in again.
Suck a little air between your teeth and your tongue and that will really open up the aromatics of the wine on the palate and really let you taste the fruit. For me I go first for the most primary fruit. So, with a red wine either a dark fruit or a red fruit. I’ll look for that primary one that sticks out the most and then I’ll start unpacking it from there. So say I’ve got plum, what goes there with plum? Is it a redcurrant fruit underneath it or is it stewed plum, or is it prunes? So once you’ve nailed those down it’s going to be about spices. Is it mixed spice, oregano? Anything you can draw back on a sensory profile. Some people don’t have much in their sensory profile and that’s fine. You might just pick one or two things. It’s a start.”
