How do you taste wine? reds to white ?

[smartelephants]

Hi I am new at this and I am interested in wines. I don't know which order the wines should be tasted. Is it reds to white, or is it whites to reds, with the dessert wines as the last to sample. Does it even matter?

[Thomas]

It matters. The rule is lighter to heavier to dessert, which often means white to red, but not necessarily always.

Think of it this way: if you bombard your taste buds with heavy, complicated tastes before lighter ones, you will have overpowered the buds and made the light tastes relatively undistinguishable. As for dessert wines: dessert always comes last, thanks to all that sugar.

[mrdutton]

I believe the suggested method also includes tasting from young to old. Start with the young and work toward the old.

So you'd work your way from whites to reds, light to full-bodied, young to old. Then, at long last, you'd move on to the dessert!