• 1. See
  Why are people looking at the wine before they drink it? It looks like wine, what else is there to see?
  Well, actually, looking at a wine can tell you what it is before you drink it. It can also give you an idea of the flavors in it. A golden-colored wine will often have a richer flavor than a straw-colored wine. A dark-purple wine will seem more intense than a light red one. These are not hard and fast rules, but looking at your wine can help you get into the wine-tasting mindset. Swirl the wine in the glass. You might think the legs, or the droplets of wine that cling to the glass once you've swirled it, will tell you about the quality of the wine. They do not, although they can indicate the body or sweetness of the wine. You will also want to make sure the wine is not cloudy. Cloudiness is a sign that the wine has gone bad.
  
  
• 2. Smell
  Have you ever stood in a room and watched everyone burying their noses into the glass with really intense looks on their faces? Then you tried to take a sniff too - just to seem like you knew what you were doing. And it just smelled like...uh...wine.
  Take a second and think about it. It might not hit you right away. You might sniff a few times before you pick up chocolate, for instance. You also have to let your brain process what you're smelling. For example, it's citrus. That you got right away. What kind of citrus is it? Lemon? Lime? Orange? Grapefruit? Definitely grapefruit, but with kind of an herbally thing to it, too. OK, so your wine has grapefruit and herbal aromas. Before you smell, swirl the wine in the glass. Swirling the wine opens it up by releasing molecules in the wine that help you smell it. If you're trying to get the hang of smelling a wine, start with an Australian Chardonnay. Aussie Chards often have powerful tropical fruit aromas. When you take a sniff, you'll really understand the idea of smell in your wines! Here's another reason to get that nose in there: to make sure the wine is still good. If the wine smells musty or like wet newspaper, it is probably corked. Corked wines have been tainted by a mold that gets into the cork and ruins the wine.
  
  
• 3. Sip
  So now we're down to business, right? Don't just take a swig and swallow. Roll the wine around in your mouth, thinking about how it feels. Is it silky? Heavy? Light? This is called the weight, or body, of the wine.
  Soak in the flavors. This part of the wine is what you'll see described as the palate. Wine-tasting pros will also take some air in their mouth to aerate the wine and open up the flavors. It might sound almost like they're gargling with it. Don't be alarmed! You're not only taking in the flavors and the weight of the wine, you're thinking about whether it's balanced. In other words, is it too sweet? Too tart? Too hot, as in the alcohol is burning your mouth? Or are all these things in balance? Once you swallow, do you still taste flavors? What you'd usually call the aftertaste is known as the finish in wine tasting. Is it short and quickly gone, or long and lingers in your mouth? Do you find new flavors? If you didn't get all this out of your first sip, it's OK. Take another. If you are attending a serious wine tasting, or a day of winetasting, have only a few sips before pouring or spitting it into the pour or spit cup. Again, don't get caught up in what the bottle says or what your fellow tasters think. Just like we all smell things differently, we all taste them differently, too. Think about it: Everyone's cup of coffee is different. Some want it sweeter, some milder and some straight up!

Get the scoop on the top 10 varietals, including pronunciation, typical flavor profile and the body, or the weight, of the wine. The best example of body? Think about the difference between skim milk and whole milk in your mouth.

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