New to wines.com.. what's the procedure in sampling wines

[hoops]

Hello..

I'm a new member to the group. I wanted to know whats the proper technique in evaluating wines.. I actually took a class in it a while ago.. but I need some basic facts.. ie when you smell a glass of wine what do you look for etc...

[hotwine]

Welcome to the board, Hoops. When sniffing a wine, you should be trying to determine its characteristics - presence/absence of wood, fruit, alcohol, "barnyard" funk, etc. A person's sense of smell is actually much more acute than his/her sense of taste, but practice is required to develop that sense as it pertains to wine. Highly recommend you buy a good book to get you started in the right direction for your wine journey. "Great Wines Made Simple" by Andrea Immer gets great reviews by the folks on this board, as does "Wine for Dummies".