Why swirl or smell wine?

Swirling and smelling is perhaps the most crucial part of evaluating wine.

There are several reasons for swirling wine in a glass. Running it up the sides of the glass allows you to have a good look at the colour and can even tell you about the alcohol content by how the drops trickle back down. The colour of the wine gives hints to the type and quality of the grape used to make the wine.

Some wines, particularly red wine, needs to air slightly to help release their full aroma and flavour. The swirling process helps this.

Why smell wine? The obvious one is to take in all of the wines aromas. Smell and taste are very much linked and this offers you a preview of how the wine is going to taste.

Scent also helps to recognise if a wine is spoiled. A damp cardboard smell could indicate there may be cork taint or the wine is “corked”.