Tasting Basics

Before getting into any details about specific varieties and regions, it's a good idea to know how to taste a wine correctly. This way you can start to piece together what you taste to find similarities and differences between the wines you drink.

Most of us think of flavors when we hear "taste", however, flavor is more of the combination of aromas and taste. Tasting is more how a substance reacts on your tongue; more like a "mouth feel." There are five tastes: sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and the lesser known (and understood) umami. The latter is less known and doesn't quite pertain to wine as it does to food, so right now I'll stick to the basic four. For each I will give you a quick way to practice so you can start to notice how each wine reacts with your tongue.

Sweet:
Sweetness is something most wine contains, however, "dry" wines will contain less than 0.38 ounces and often as little as 0.07 ounces of residual sugar per quart. Sugar content will range from 0.35 - 7.0 ounces per quart in wines.
Practice: Take sugar granules and place them on different parts of your tongue at different intervals. Take Notice where on your tongue reacts strongest. For most, this will be at the tip of your tongue. Now, next time you taste wine, notice how strong of a reaction you get in that area and you can start to determine sweetness levels of the wine you drink

Sour:
Sourness on your tongue when you drink wine is the measure of acidity of the wine. This "crisp" taste is more enjoyable to some than others, but acidity is what allows wines to last; without it, a wine will taste "flat" or lack a nice "zip". Too much acid can be unbearable and give the wine a more tart feel in your mouth.
Practice: Take something high in acidity, such as vinegar, or (if you aren't that brave) lemon juice, and take a sniff. Notice how the sides of your tongue almost curl up in anticipation of what is to come. This taste is so strong, the tongue will react act the thought of it before you even taste it. Next, just to prove the point, take a small sip and swish it on your tongue. You should get the reaction the strongest at the same place as when you smelled the substance.

Salty:
Saltiness isn't found much in wine, especially in a very noticeable quantity, but to have a complete take on total mouth feel here's an experiment:
Practice: Make a saline solution by dissolving some salt in water and swish it on your tongue. Notice where you pick up the taste the most. Usually it will be a little in from where you get acid and back. This practice will help you more with tasting food than wine, then again, those two generally go hand in hand.

Bitterness:
This taste is most sensitive at the back of the tongue. Bitterness is also not as important in wine as acidity and sweetness. A few wines can leave a bitter taste in your mouth such as Italian reds. Bitterness is confused with tannin as much as sweetness is confused with "fruitiness". I'll tell you more about this later.
Practice: Put a few drops of bitters on your tongue and move it around and see where it lasts. Bitterness is a taste that doesn't go away quickly, so when you're done it's ok to take a big swig of water.

Now every time you taste a wine, try to take notice of all of these feelings on your tongue. You'll start to see a lot of similarities and differences between varieties. This will help you in pairing wine with food, and also maybe you'll start to notice that some wines you always considered "really sweet" are actually only considered "medium-dry" in the wine world, such as Riesling or Gewürztraminer.