Have you ever watched someone expertly swirling wine in a glass?  It seems so casual...so ‘the right thing to do", doesn't it?  Yet to the novice wine drinker, even attempting such a bold gesture can be daunting!  Why swirl anyway?  What could possibly be the reason other than pretentious showmanship?

Believe it or not, ‘the swirl' serves a very important function...it oxygenates the wine and liberates aroma compounds that might otherwise remain locked inside the liquid.  So why is this important?  Releasing aromas is essential for tasters to fully appreciate the wine's character.  Much like food, the smell of the wine can influence the taste. 

The human tongue only perceives five basic tastes: sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami (a recently defined savory flavor) whereas a human nose can detect thousands of more discrete and specific aromas.  Not only do wine aromas make an impression on the front of the nose when smelling, but they also make an impression from the back of the nose after the wine is swallowed.  This is when the after-aromas fuse with the taste and texture sensations that are revealed on the palate.

In short, the aromatic impression a wine makes on the nose, both front and back, can influence how the wine tastes.  The more ‘open' or ‘closed' the wine is the more (or less) ample and complex the aromas may be, depending on the wine.  Thus, swirling the wine to release the volatile aromas and ‘open up' the wine will play a direct role in how a taster perceives and enjoys the wine.

For beginners, practice is the best way to master ‘the swirl'.  Here are some training tips that might help.

To start, make sure you practice with a suitable tasting glass.  The glass should be large enough to allow swirling and also be in a tulip shape, or with the top of the glass turned inward so that the wines aromas will be channeled and concentrated at the top. This is, of course, the shape of a standard wine glass. Swirling wine in a glass that is fluted outward, or in a tumbler or whiskey glass will likely end up in a mess!


First, pour only a small portion of wine into the glass, filling it by approximately a third.  This will allow plenty of room in the glass to swirl the wine and avoid clumsy spills on your clothes or the table.  It will also give space for the aromatic vapors to rise and concentrate on the nose.







Second, hold the glass by the stem rather than cradling it in the cup of your hand.  This will ensure that your hand doesn't warm the wine (if not needed) and also allow you to manipulate the glass in the swirling motion more easily.








Now, first try swirling the wine while the glass remains sitting on the table.  This will give a more controlled swirl, and also give you some idea of how little or much force to use.  To do this, hold the glass in your right hand and move it around in a counter-clockwise direction on the table to create the swirling motion in the glass. 






Lastly, once you've mastered the ‘table swirl' then try a ‘free-hand' swirl.  Again, hold the glass by the stem then begin moving the bowl of the glass in a counter-clockwise, circular movement.  This may require slightly tilting the glass away from you to generate the circular movement...not too much or your tasting partners will be wearing the wine!

Once the wine is swirling, stop the circular motion of your hand and bring the glass to your nose.  The vapors will continue to rise from the swirling wine.  Now, sniff the wine to take in the aromas. 

By way of contrast allow the wine to settle down again then take a comparative sniff of the wine while it is motionless in the glass.  Are the aromas more or less pronounced?  Does it seem to have more or fewer aromas?  Chances are you will find some differences in the intensity and variety of aromas.

This is a good place to start, and TLN will go into more depth about assessing and recognizing aromas in later articles. 

Meanwhile...happy swirling, sniffing...and sipping!

Contributed by Ed Soon (a.k.a. Broad Nose) and Sarah Mayo (TLN Editor)