Wine Tasting...

 Eyeballing wine, swirling, sniffing and swishing ... it may look complicated or even snobbish, but the traditional wine-tasting technique is actually based on common sense. It's simply a way to pause for a moment, to stop and think, and to pay attention to the ways that the wine impacts on all your senses, from sight and scent to taste, aftertaste, and the overall impression that the wine leaves behind after you've finished.

The Nose
Whisky tasting is done principally with the nose - a far more acute organ than the tongue, although the two interrelate as the sample is swallowed.
While there are only four primary tastes, there are 32 primary smells. These are aromatic volatiles, which are detected by a small fleshy bulb called the Olfactory Epithelium, located at the back of our noses and having a direct link to the brain.

The Tongue
As well as registering the primary tastes, the tongue also detects what is termed 'mouthfeel' - the viscosity, texture and smoothness of the fluid we are swallowing - and 'pungency' (which is essentially an evaluation of pain - from irritation to unbearable - and is also picked up by the nose). In whisky tasting, pungency is particularly apparent in very strong spirit, which may sting your nose and tongue and induce numbness (temporary anaesthesia). So you have to be careful when nosing whisky at full strength - i.e. as it comes from the cask.

Flavour
Is a combination of three factors: smell, taste and feeling.