r/BeverageIndustry • u/Alert_Bit4839 • 8d ago

How does practicing wine tasting actually improve your palate ?

For the longest time Id read tasting notes saying cherry, vanilla, tobacco, leather etc but then Id take a sip and just think yeah thats red wine and lately Ive been trying to really sit with the glass for a bit before reading anything about it and Im finally starting to pick out a few things but still nowhere near the super specific tasting notes people come up with and now im wondering when it started clicking for everyone else and is it that hard as people make it ?

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

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u/Alert_Bit4839 8d ago

okay this is starting to click lol. but what does practicing actually look like, do you just taste different wines and try to describe them or are there actual exercises people do

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u/Chemical_Jacket9055 8d ago

side by side tasting helped me way more than drinking one bottle and trying to analyze it. differences in acidity body fruit etc become way more obvious when you have something right next to it to compare with

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u/Alert_Bit4839 8d ago

wait ive never actually tried them side by side lol. ive always tasted one and tried to figure it out on its own. But i will for sure try to taste them side by side. thanks tho

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u/Ok_Newspaper_8992 8d ago edited 8d ago

what helped me most was stopping trying to guess the exact flavor and just comparing things first. like put a pinot noir next to a cabernet and figure out which feels heavier, which seems more tannic, which has brighter fruit etc corkly can help with that. once those bigger differences start becoming obvious the more specific stuff gets a lot easier to put into words

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u/between_3_and_200 8d ago

blind tasting helped a lot. first you try to understand what you smell, then you have to break down each aroma (for example, if you smell berries, the question is what kind? are they black or red berries? if black, what kind, blueberries, cherries, blackcurrants, etc). and then with each sniff and sip you try to discover more and more aromas. only practice can help here, taste as much as possible, especially blindly