How anyone can appreciate a glass of wine.

Appreciating wine needn't be a process left for the reserved who can distinguish a Vermentino from their Pinot Grigio.

I feel that anyone can do so and for those dipping their toe into the water for the first time this may be for you:

Firstly, we need to ask what it is that allows us to even taste the food, drink and even air around us. Is it our smell, or taste at work? Maybe both? To really find out you may want to try this:

Get a jellybean, and take your free hand to pinch your nose shut. Now take the jellybean and begin to chew vigorously for around 10-15 seconds. What are you currently tasting or experiencing? Now, let go of your fingers from pinching your nose and continue chewing. What just happened?

Your olfactory (the receptor in your nose) is what allows you to taste and identify flavour. Without it, you can only really identify texture. For instance, whether it is thin or thick in consistency, smooth or crunchy and so on.

Now to taste wine!

Pour the wine into a wine glass slightly less than half way (yes, a wine glass...not a tumbler!) and give it a minute or so to 'breathe'. This gives the wine time to open up with it's characteristics. Observe the hue (colour) of the wine, which gives you a clue to how it may taste. For instance, if it is a white wine that is a more dark straw hue, it would lead to indicate it is going to taste more rich and full bodied as opposed to a more opaque-yellow tinge wine which suggests it's light and fresh. Tilting the glass away from you on a slight angle creates a lip of the wine, which will show the colour at it's best.

Now, with the glass on the table, give it a swirl for a few seconds, holding your hand to the base of the glass. This process lifts the aroma of the wine from the glass making it easier to identify characteristics. Holding the glass by the stem (the long thin part) tilt the glass at an angle towards you, exhale and bring your nose inside the glass followed by inhaling. Exhaling followed by inhaling allows you to do so deeper when smelling the wine. Now, try to identify some flavours you have just smelled and hold the thought in your mind.

With those thoughts, now taste the wine. Gently swirl it in your mouth and swallow. Did what you smell originally taste similar to what you just experienced, or did you identify some new flavours? With practice and time, you will pick up on more characteristics and better ways to express what you taste into words. Put it this way, the more ways you can describe an Orange, the more ways you can describe a glass of wine.

The final part is the finish. Did the taste linger on and develop into other flavours or was it abrupt? Generally, a better quality wine will have some degree and unfolding of new flavours as a finish.