If the wine is tart like a strong lemonade; then you have some good acidity going in this wine. Does your mouth feel dry, dusty, and possibly a bit puckery?  That would be tannin, much like what you feel and taste when you eat walnuts that haven’t been skinned or when drinking a very strong tea.  How did the tannins taste?  Were they soft and dusty and contribute to the fullness of the wine, or were they green and tough, making the wine hard to drink? Big tannins in a wine are not a bad thing, and can ripen with time; however, if the tannins taste green they may never soften, making the wine hard no matter how long you age it. 
     As you swallow or spit the wine, count to yourself how many seconds you can feel or taste the wine on your palate.  This is called the wine’s length, and is a critical element to its value.  Write down how the wine evolves as it lingers.  Does it start as a taste of red fruit and end with spice and vanilla?  This can really be hard to do when people are talking to you and making a commotion, but give it a try.  Think about how the finish evolved; did it start with a big burst and then just die? Did it taper down slowly? Or did it start to taper off sharply and then come back?  Wine should taper down slowly, but different wines can act very differently.
     If the wine is tart like a strong lemonade; then you have some good acidity going in this wine. Does your mouth feel dry, dusty, and possibly a bit puckery?  That would be tannin, much like what you feel and taste when you eat walnuts that haven’t been skinned or when drinking a very strong tea.  How did the tannins taste?  Were they soft and dusty and contribute to the fullness of the wine, or were they green and tough, making the wine hard to drink? Big tannins in a wine are not a bad thing, and can ripen with time; however, if the tannins taste green they may never soften, making the wine hard no matter how long you age it. 
     As you swallow or spit the wine, count to yourself how many seconds you can feel or taste the wine on your palate.  This is called the wine’s length, and is a critical element to its value.  Write down how the wine evolves as it lingers.  Does it start as a taste of red fruit and end with spice and vanilla?  This can really be hard to do when people are talking to you and making a commotion, but give it a try.  Think about how the finish evolved; did it start with a big burst and then just die? Did it taper down slowly? Or did it start to taper off sharply and then come back?  Wine should taper down slowly, but different wines can act very differently.

EVALUATION:
            Now its time to bring it all together and use your observations to evaluate your overall impression of the wine.  First think about the wine’s balance between alcohol, acid, tannin and fruit.  Although the levels of these are different based on wine type, they should always work in harmony.  In a great Riesling or Sauvignon Blanc you may have piercing acidity, but it should be balanced with great fruit or a wonderful minerality that makes it taste clean and refreshing.  A dull or flabby version of these wines has definite issues and should probably be left in the tasting room.  In a well-made Cabernet Sauvignon you may have some good alcohol levels and big tannins; but they should never feel harsh or make up the bulk of the wine’s impression on the palate.  A Cab that leaves just a feeling of heat and dryness on the finish with no accompanying fruit or flavor is out of balance.  Even a big, bold young Cab should show some complexity in the finish.
     Think next about that complexity; look back at the smells and flavors you picked up in the wine in your earlier evaluations.  Was there a significant number present in multiple categories, or was there just a few, mostly concentrated in one category?  Think about the finish and how it traveled across your palate.  Did it evolve as it lingered, or was it just one consistent taste through the finish?  The more variety you get on the nose and palate, the better made the wine.  That is not to say a fairly simple wine won’t be absolutely delicious and fun to drink, they just aren’t as high in quality as the wine that changes each time you smell or taste it as it opens up.  Not every wine has to be double gold quality to taste good; sometimes a simple, but just plain slurpable wine is what you feel like drinking.  There is nothing wrong with that, but it’s better to know the difference between that and a complex, elegant wine.  As you taste more and more wines, they will be easier for you to evaluate against the wines you have had in the past. Come up with a complexity and balance rating system that works for you. Also remember, as you develop your palate that the small nuances found in a good wine will be easier to identify.  When you first start doing these types of evaluations you are likely to find a lot less going on in a wine then you will a few months into the journey.  Keep that in mind when you review your early wine notes. 
     Take a look back at the length of the wine’s finish from your earlier notes.  How many seconds did it last?  The following scale is commonly used to categorize a wine’s length:  short (less than 10 seconds), medium (10 to 15 seconds), long (20 to 30 seconds) and very long (more than 30 second).  A great wine can last more than a minute, but those aren’t all that common.  Anything greater than 45 seconds is considered to be a very well made wine indeed. 
     Another important consideration is what the climate was like where the grapes were grown. Is the fruit ripe and soft, or tart and sharp around the edges?  Ripe fruit (think of black cherries in a red wine or golden apples in a white) indicates a warm climate; unripe fruit would mean a cooler climate where the grapes struggled to ripen.  Think about the wine style. Was the wine really fruit forward, or more about minerality and earthiness? What was the alcohol level like?  Was it low or significant?

Continued