It is the third stage in the wine tasting. Take a sip and taste the wine in your mouth. Thanks to this process you will be able to:
- Smell the wine again: draw air into your mouth once you have taken the sip. You will be able to “smell” the wine again automatically as the scents are going to be carried up by the retro nasal channel to the olfactory receiver. This is called retro-olfaction. This should confirm the smells felt on the nose and sometimes reveal some more as the wine is heated slightly in the mouth.
- Get the 4 tastes: Our tongue can only recognize the sweet, salt (very rarely felt in wines), bitter (once the wine is swallowed or spat out but not felt very often) and acidity.
- Assess the balance (see other definition) 

They are very important molecules coming from the skin of the grapes and contributing to the structure of the wine. The 2 main polyphenols are the red pigments called anthocyanins responsible for the colour of young red wines, and the tannins giving structure mostly in red wines.