Jaime Jalandoni of Premium Wine Exchange is stripping away the pretense, proving great wine is for everyone.
Wine: both a ubiquitous and enigmatic presence. Found in grocery store aisles, on restaurant menus, on your Instagram feed. Yet when taking that first sip of the night (or day, nobody’s judging), you might have found yourself perplexed on more than a few occasions. After all, why else would this article catch your attention? Questions like “Why do I need to swirl the glass?” and “Am I holding it right?” come to mind.
If you’ve felt this way, know that you’re not alone. While writing this article, I talked to friends, colleagues, and new acquaintances who confessed that they weren’t quite sure if they’re “doing it right,” despite how prevalent the drink is in their lives. A quick Google search yields some answers, but the volume of information online can be overwhelming.
Enter Jaime Jalandoni, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Premium Wine Exchange (PWX). His father Jeri established the wine shop with his partners in 2003, and now Jaime has joined the business. Though he’s been in the industry for just two years, his interest goes way back.
“The first experience I had with wine while growing up was at the dinner table,” he explains. “One thing that was nice about my dad is that he made it easy for us to understand what we were drinking.”
The entrepreneur shared that getting more people—particularly younger consumers like himself interested in wine is part of PWX’s mission. That’s why he’s graciously given us the answers to some burning questions. I’ve compiled them into a guide that will hopefully be of use to anyone looking to explore the art of wine tasting with a spring in their step and a little more confidence.
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The Basics And “Buzzwords”
These terms will get you started on your wine journey—and they also make for great “buzzwords,” tactfully sprinkle them into conversations, and you’ll look like a seasoned enthusiast in no time (perfect for impressing friends, family, and a date at a fancy dinner).
ACIDITY refers to a wine’s “piercing” character. It’s that “tension” or perceived dryness on the palette. Tip: Sip a wine paired with a fatty dish. If it easily cuts through the richness, it likely has higher acidity.
People swirl their glasses to AERATE their wine. It’s the process of incorporating air into the drink, releasing its more nuanced aromas and flavors.
AGE plays a key role in shaping a wine’s characteristics. The process “softens” wine over time, bringing out “tertiary” flavors like mushrooms and spices. Particularly noticeable in champagne, where age creates a softer, less acidic, and more approachable drink.
The BODY of a wine is arguably its most noticeable characteristic at first sip. Jaime describes it as a distinct mouthfeel. His tip is to use milk as a reference point. Lighter-bodied wines are similar to low-fat milk, with a thinner, less viscous texture; they also tend to have a higher acidity. Conversely, full-bodied wines have a texture similar to full cream milk. Medium-bodied wines strike the balance.
Now it’s time to introduce a word sure to impress in conversation. CUVÉE (pronounced COO-vey) refers to a particular blend or batch of wine, often appearing on bottle labels. “If a wine uses the same grape, but comes from a different vineyard, it’s considered another cuvée, and will be named as so,” Jaime explains. For instance, you might say, “This lovely cuvée is 40% Pinot Noir and 60% Chardonnay.”
DECANTING is a gentler form of aeration, transferring the drink from bottle to decanter (a specially designer container) to incorporate oxygen and release nuanced flavors and aromas. It can also help separate liquid from sediment that may have settled in older wines, resulting in a smoother drinking experience.
Those planning to open a bottle of older wine will benefit from knowing about the DURAND. This broadly-patented device is designed to safely remove fragile corks that might otherwise break and fall into the bottle.
A wine’s level of EXTRACTION affects its body. More extracted wines tend to be fuller-bodied. “Underextracted” wine feels watery and light, while “overextracted” wine tends to be much thicker.
The aromas and flavors of FRUITS are present in red and white wines, and also noticeable in a wine’s color, with darker reds featuring black fruits (blackberries, blackcurrants, prunes) and blue fruits (blueberries), and lighter reds showcasing red fruits (strawberries, cherries, pomegranates).
Recall a time when you left a teabag steep for too long, turning the drink dark and bitter. TANNINS in wine work similarly. They are compounds found in grape skin, seeds, and stems that create bitterness in the drink.
TERROIR refers to environmental factors that influence wine characteristics. It’s why French wine tastes different from American wine, because of climate, natural surroundings, and even harvest practices.
Wine Cheat Sheet
Here’s Jaime’s rundown of the most frequently encountered red and white wines, arranged from light-bodied to full-bodied.
Sauvignon Blanc white wines share a light, crisp, and fruity profile with high acidity.
Chardonnay, on the other hand, is heavier and sometimes more viscous than Sauvignon Blanc, as it tends to age longer.
Rosé is made like red wines: with the grape skins on, but for a much shorter period of time, resulting in its distinct pink hue and a light yet diverse flavor profile ranging from sweet to more savory.
Pinot Noir grapes have thin skins, producing wines that are light in both color and taste and usually very fruity.
Cabernet Franc is a grape with thicker skin, but still maintains some lightness.
Merlot marks the start of the darker, fuller-bodied wines, comprising thick-skinned grapes that give it its signature velvety smooth mouthfeel, with fairly controlled acidity.
While Cabernet Sauvignon grapes are closely related to those of Cabernet Franc, they’ve got much thicker skins. As such, this variety is the most full-bodied among the four listed, producing a rich, dark wine that is quite high in tannins.
The How-To’s Of Wine Tasting
Now that you’re acquainted with the jargon, it’s time to put it all into practice.
Pairing
Wines are usually paired with food to complement them, bringing out their best flavors and enhancing the dining experience. Regardless of which wine you choose, there’s one rule of thumb, according to Jaime: “Make sure it doesn’t overshadow [the dish]—winemakers will say that the wine is always the supporting cast meant to highlight a dish.” This is why restaurants wouldn’t pair a strong red wine like Port (a type of Portuguese wine) with something as delicate in flavor as sashimi.
So how can you tell which wines go with which food? Jaime suggests starting by matching their colors. “If it’s a lighter-colored dish, then a lighter-colored wine would normally suit it.” Likewise, darker dishes usually pair well with darker-colored wines like Cabernet Sauvignon. Seafood is often paired with white wine, while red wines tend to accompany meats.
Glassware
You’ve likely seen a wide assortment of wine glasses out in the world—but does it actually make a difference? The short answer: Yes.
“The shape influences how you interact with the wine when you smell it: if the area at the bottom is wider, it traps aromas—and depending on the varietal, these will be delivered in a more narrow path, which creates a concentrated smell,” Jaime shares.
Part of it is also for aesthetics: champagne is typically served in slim glasses or “flutes” because their shape highlights its signature bubbles and the foam that forms on top. That said, changing glasses every time you try a different wine can be tedious, which is why Jaime recommends that beginners purchase “universal” wine glasses. These vessels possess a neutral shape that suits a wide range of wines.
Holding and Serving
While it’s not a mortal sin to hold a wine glass by its base rather than its stem, doing so can drastically affect how a wine tastes. “The main reason why people are discouraged from doing that is because it warms up the wine. It will impact the way you perceive aromas,” Jaime elaborates.
He adds: “We also live in a hot country, so it goes back to service temperature, making sure that the type of wine you’re drinking is served at the right temperature. White wine is served cooler than red, typically, unless it’s Port. You can check the bottles too, because they usually indicate the ideal temperature. But the
general ideal temperature for storing wine is 13 degrees celsius.”
Taking the Sip
So you’ve chosen your wine, selected the right glass, and learned how to store and serve it: now comes the moment to finally taste it. Start by swirling or “agitating” the wine, Jaime advises, then smelling it immediately to catch its aromas. The intensity of your swirling can also produce different effects.
“Swirling it just a little, gently, will bring out the primary aromas,” Jaime states. “The more aggressively you swirl, the more the nuanced aromas will come out.” This is also where glass shape comes in, as narrower vessels can limit how much you can swirl a wine.
As for identifying aromas or flavors, it’s important to keep in mind that there’s no “right” or “wrong” description. “Each person has their own vernacular for their palate,” Jaime continues. “What they perceive can be different based on their experiences growing up, like the food from their cuisine. It can vary, but there’s the traditional route of tasting wines, which you can take classes for.”
However, if you’re simply drinking wine for enjoyment, he believes that group tastings are the best way to learn and develop your palate. “You exchange ideas and it’s fun,” he states. “One person will say they smell a certain note, and it may resonate with you, even if you didn’t think about it at the beginning. Moving forward, it becomes a part of what you perceive.”
The Secret Is That There Is No Secret
All wine enthusiasts and entrepreneurs have one thing in common: when they encounter a new world, they embrace it with open arms. In other words, they know what they know because they love it—cliché as that may sound. No one is born with all this knowledge; you simply make it your own.
“You don’t need to have a large collection or spend a lot of money on it,” Jaime points out. “I know a lot of people in our [wine] community that don’t have big collections or one at all; they buy on a bottle-to bottle basis, but still enjoy engaging with the community.”
So perhaps the first step to “demystifying” the bottle is acknowledging that there’s no secret. There’s no aspect to tasting wine that can’t be grasped with a good amount of curiosity, openness, and interest. Wine is only as complicated as we make it, and there’s nothing wrong with understanding it on our own terms and at our own pace. Just as no two bottles of wine are exactly the same, neither are the people who taste them. It’s these diverse perspectives, including yours, that make the experience all the more exciting.
This article was originally published in our April 2025 issue.
Photography by Kim Santos of KLIQ, Inc.
