Wine tasting

There are main steps to taste your wine:

Look: Check out the color and clarity. Move the wine around in your glass by tilting it from side to side. Hold it up to the light or in front of a white background. In your red wines notice the variety and intensity of colors presented. Your red wines should not be at all brown or flat looking. In your white wines notice the shades of gold and yellow presented. You may even see a hint of green. 
Smell: Swirl the glass for 10 to 12 seconds then smell the wine, do this a few times to get a sense of the overall impression. If it is a white wine, do you smell apples, pears, peaches, apricots, lime, lemon, grapefruit (these are some of the fruit characteristics of white wines). If it is a red wine, do you smell cherry, black cherry, plum, raspberry, blueberry, blackberry (these are some of the fruit characteristics of red wine).

Taste: Sip a small amount of your wine, but do not swallow it yet. Let it roll around inside your mouth for a few moments so you can detect its flavors. Experienced wine tasters will introduce air into their mouths to bring out still more aromas and flavors. You can do this by tipping your head slightly forward and down, pursing your lips as if to whistle, then breathing in through your mouth while breathing out through your nose. When tasting your wine you are looking for a balance between acid, alcohol and tannin. You want these elements to be in harmony, without one taste overpowering another.

This is a quick and simple wine tasting guide. As you taste more wines, you will discover more of the characteristics of certain types of wine.