The sommelier breaks down the proper way to taste a wine when a bartender gives you a sample, and reveals exactly how to spot any ‘flaws’ in a drink before committing to buying a bottle or a full glass.
WarnerThe 30-year-old from California is a “hassle-free” wine guru who frequently shares tips and tricks about her favorite drink to her 66,000+ followers on TikTok.
Recently, Warner revealed how to properly taste wine when the server pours a small amount for you.
When you get a simple taste, she explained, the restaurant allows you to “check for imperfections.”
Warner, 30, of California, is a “hassle-free” wine guru who breaks down the right way to taste wine when a waiter gives you a sample.
She frequently shares tips and tricks about her favorite drink to her 66,000+ followers on TikTok
Recently, Warner revealed how to properly taste wine when a server pours a small amount for you, noting that you should check for imperfections.
Warner explained that she would help her viewers “order wine with confidence” before revealing what to look out for.
“So when a waiter or sommelier comes over and pours you that little taste of wine, what they’re actually doing is letting you check for flaws, not to try the wine and see if you like it or not,” she explains.
Warner revealed that the first and “most common” defect is something known as a “wine cork”.
She explained that this wine has something in it called “TCA” which seeps through the cork.
This can make it smell like moldy cardboard, wet newspaper, or the dog type. Basically all the characteristics of the fruit are gone, it just doesn’t smell good.
Warner said this is mostly due to heat damage. She explained that she had had it before, and that the wine she had ordered smelled like “jam” and “fortified wine”.
She noticed that when she asked to see the cork, she saw that the wine had leaked all the way down the cork.
This told me the wine had heat damage. Basically, if the wine gets too hot, the pressure in the bottle builds up so much that it starts pushing the wine from the top into the cork and sometimes it leaks out of the cork,” explained the snobbish sommelier.
She added that a wine with heat damage wouldn’t “kill you,” but it “wouldn’t taste good at all.”
Then Warner dived into the next thing to look for when you take your first sip.
Warner revealed that the first and “most common” defect is something known as a “wine cork”.
This can make it smell like moldy cardboard, wet newspaper, or the dog type. Basically all the characteristics of the fruit are gone, it just doesn’t smell good
The second thing to check is “too much sulfur”.
If you find too much sulfur in your wine, it will smell something like burnt rubber, rotten eggs, and garlic. “That means he may have been in a reducing environment, so there wasn’t a lot of oxygen,” Warner said.
She added that you will be able to identify this because it will taste like vinegar.
Warner ended her video with a disclaimer for the following night.
Mostly, defects aren’t uncommon with wine, and restaurants usually take care of stocking the wine, but if there are any issues, tell your waiter or sommelier, they’ll sniff and identify the problem as well, and most likely give you a new bottle, she explained.
Viewers flocked to the comments section and complimented the wine guru for her help.
Viewers flocked to the comments section and complimented the wine guru for her help
“I needed that lol,” one person commented.
‘Thank you! I’m glad to know what to do at this moment,” one person wrote.
1 person added: ‘Very helpful. Thank you!’
‘The more you know! Thank you, another user commented.
