The professional wine taster has a fairly rigid protocol when tasting wine. Happily, this protocol also is a lot of fun and helps you enjoy and appreciate your wine even more. See It is important to observe the wine carefully in the glass. Then there's color.
Red wines start life dark, and usually purple.
Their color changes from purple to garnet to red-brick to brown. Unlike white wine, reds tend to get lighter as they age. Once again, a young Beaujolais that's looking brown undoubtedly has problems. Always compare color and age. Many wine-tasters say that they learn more from smelling a wine than from tasting it.