Take a sip! In wine tasting process our sense of smell serves to define the flavour and form initial impressions, while tasting the wine is needed to judge the structure of the wine. In fact these two stages are in connection to each other. Make a simple test - block your nose and taste the wine. You would hardly sense any flavour. To evaluate the taste, take a sip and keep it in your mouth. The different parts of the tongue register the different basic tastes - sweet at the tip, sour at the upper edges, bitter at the back, dry tannins at the inner side of the cheeks and high alcoholic content creates the sense of hotness in the upper part of the throat. Let the wine flow around your tongue and note the structure or the feeling that fills your mouth. Well-balanced wines show harmony between several components: flavour, acidity, tannins, fruitness and sweetness. Moderate acidity ensures for a pleasant, yet not prevailing acerbity. Balanced tannins also create fine acerb impressions - this is one of the reasons why red wines are good match to greasy food. The tannins in red wines clean the sense of grease in the mouth after each bite and prepare the taste buds to enjoy the next one. At the end reflect on the taste that is left in your mouth after you swallow and for how long it lingers. This is the wine's finish. Pure and fresh, yet prolonged and balanced, finish is a sign of good-quality wines.