For many people wine tasting is a profession, something that cannot be trifled with. Yet, for some others, wine tasting is a way of having fun and enjoying life. However, both the parties agree that wine tasting glasses are extremely important during wine tasting – whether the latter is done for fun or as a profession.

What is the ‘Bouquet’?

If you have been around wine-tasting parties or events you would have definitely heard this term. Okay, this does not refer to the flowers on the table – actually it does not refer to any flower bouquet. What it means is the aroma of the wine. The smell of the wine you are tasting or you are going to taste, is called the bouquet. The bouquet as a term is interchangeable with the term, ‘nose’ which is used most commonly at very refined wine-tasting ceremonies.

In case you did not know how to get the bouquet or the nose out of the wine, the following few lines will explain it to you. The wine tasting glasses are kept on the table and filled with the wine that you are supposed to taste. The wine tasting glasses are usually shaped like bulbs to produce the right smell while tasting. The lower and large part of the wine tasting glasses usually allow for the space that it is needed to swirl the wine, while the narrow mouth allows the aroma to be “captured’ by your nose.

The wine is then stirred, or rather swirled, in the glass and the aroma captured when it leaves the wine tasting glasses. The swirl is done is a specific way and it would be good if you have a few rounds the practice at home with water, lest you will spill wine on the white linens at the party.

The swirling movement has to be extremely exact, while totally circular so that wine completes a round in the glass without leaving the glass. The gentle swirl should be sufficient for the wine to make at least two rounds in the glass. The stirring would throw up the wine’s smell for you to take note of it.

This smell is called the bouquet – some wines do smell like flowers, but the name is not generated from this aspect. Whatever may be the reason for calling the smell of the wine a ‘bouquet’, the process has proved that the wine tasting glasses do play a very important role.