Wine Tasting Component I: Look

The first step you have to undertake in wine tasting is visual.

1. Fill up the glass up to 1/3 of its volume; never fill it more than
half;

2. Hold the glass by the stem. Initially you may find this too
pretentious but there are good reasons for it:
а) by doing it this way you can actually observe the wine in it;
b) this will keep your fingerprints off the bowl;
c) the heat from your palm will not change the temperature of the
wine.
There's a good saying by one of the greatest French wine lovers, Emil
Painot: Offer someone a glass of wine and you can immediately tell
whether he/she is a connoisseur by the way they hold the glass." Even
though you may not think of yourself as a connoisseur, you could still
learn how to hold the wine glass.