How To Judge A Wine Mini-Series 

Welcome Video 

There are different techniques to judging a wine, however, these techniques often overlap no matter which style of judging you are learning.   The three main categories that you will always be judging are the wine's appearance, aromas, and taste.  

Part 1 - Judging Appearance 

When first starting to judge a wine you judge the appearance.  Often judges hold the wine against a white backdrop and this will help them see any faults easier.  White wines gain color as they age from lemon to gold to caramel.   This is important because it will help you determine the age of the wine......

Part 2 - Judging Aromas 

We swirl the wine and then smell it because this helps to open up the wine and release its characteristics.  We’re first looking for faults in the wine like Brettanomyces which can give strong smells of barnyard and leather.  However, wine judging can be tricky because some European countries specifically make their wines with some Brett aromas. It will be your job to determine if it's a fault or a wine style......

Part 3 - Judging Taste 

Everyone’s favorite step in judging a wine, what is it going to taste like?  The specific things we are going to judge are sweetness, acidity, tannin, alcohol, body, and intensity. 

Sweetness works two ways: 1) A wine should have sweetness and you are judging on how sweet it is and if it’s in balance.  2) Some wines are labeled dry wines but may have a couple of grams of residual sugar to help balance the wine.  This is a good thing.  Just don’t let fruitiness mislead you for sweetness.......