Oxidized nose - stale smell due to exposure to air. Taste Taste of a wine should confirm conclusions drawn from its appearance and bouquet. To judge taste, swirl a reasonable mouthful of wine around in the mouth for all the taste buds to experience. Intensity and length of flavor reflect quality of the wine. Wines have a definite flavor that is strong and easily recognized, a mild flavor, or an obscure, faint flavor.
Sweet wines have a taste similar to a solution of water and sugar.
Degrees of sweetness range from very sweet to semi-sweet. Dry wines have an absence of sugar and range from semi-dry to very dry. Tart wines have an agreeable degree of acidity caused by tartaric acid. The tart taste in wine can be compared to the tart taste of orange juice. Degrees of tartness vary from very tart, tart, slightly tart to lacking tartness.