Beaune26 Linda explained that you use three senses when tasting wine. First, you look at the color and swirl the wine in the glass to see what kind of rivulets it makes. These are what the French call the "tears of the wine" and it tells you something about the quality of the wine and it's sugar content. Second, you smell the wine. And don't be shy about sticking you entire proboscis up in there. Third, you taste the wine. Don't be afraid to swirl it in your mouth because you taste different things with different parts of the tongue -- sweet in front and bitter in back. Also, if the flavor doesn't last on your palette for 10 – 12 seconds, it's not a good wine.