Port Wine:
The Perfect Taster

Our lead-free crystaline tasting glass is an essential tool for discovering the sensory elements of all wines. The egg-shaped bowl allows the wine to be swirled without fear of spillage.

-Take a few seconds to just look at your wine before you ever swirl your wine in its glass. You want to observe its exact coloring, bits of sediment resting in the bottom of your wine glass and if the color deviates from one spot in the glass to another. Next place your nose as closely to the glass and sniff the wine, don’t sniff so hard that you actually inhale drops of wine into your nose, just a little sniff will do. Notice if your wine smell like berries, grapes or the wooden barrel where it was fermented.

-Swirl your glass of wine. When swirling your wine it is important to be very careful to swirl gently. If you are too enthusiastic with your swirling the wine may slosh over the sides of the glass.

-Pinch your wine glass stem between your fingers; don’t grasp it so hard that you snap the delicate glass.

-Rotate your wrist gently in a counter-clockwise motion. Rotate with just enough speed that the wine starts to swirl along the sides of the glass.

-Look for the wine trails on the sides of your wine glass. These trails indicate the wine’s alcohol content. The higher number of trails, which are often called tears or wine legs, the more alcohol your wine contains.

-Place your nose near the glass' brim and inhale. Notice if the swirling changed the wine’s bouquet.

By Jessica Schira, eHow Contributor.