Understanding the factors that influence your sensory reactions may increase your appreciation even more, since it can help you decide not only if you enjoy what you've tasted, but the reasons you feel the way you do. Tasting wine fully is both simple and fun. You don't look at a wine to determine if you're drinking a white wine, a rose, or a red, but to make some preliminary observations about the taste you anticipate, of the wine's age and even quality. The color of wine can often tell you something about how the wine will taste, especially how rich or full-bodied it may be. A darker, deeper color usually indicates a more full-bodied wine than one that is lighter and more translucent.
Color can also indicate a wine's age.
Most white wines deepen in color as they get older, from almost clear or pale gold to a deeper golden. On the other hand, some delicious older reds may pick up brick, brown and garnet tones as part of the aging process. Swirling is the second step in the tasting process. You swirl by holding the bottom of the stem between your thumb and fingers, resting your hand near or on the foot of the glass, and gently rotating the glass on the tabletop to expose the maximum surface area of the wine to air. Swirling is important because it allows the wine to breathe, and breathing helps to bring out the nuances of smell and taste.