7 Tips To Taste Like a Winemaker - Free PDF

In our small, purpose-built winery in McLaren Vale, Matt tastes every week, new ferments, trials and finished wines about to leave the winery. This short guide shares the seven checks he actually uses, so you can see more in every glass at home.

  • The seven practical checks Matt runs through whenever he tastes in the winery
  • A simple way to break down look, aroma, texture and structure without getting technical
  • A printable one-page cheat card you can use with any wine over a month
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Smidge Wines · small, purpose-built, single-site winery in McLaren Vale Top 100 Wineries of Australia since 2021 Winemaker Matt Wenk · 30+ vintages

What you’ll get

This is for people who already care what’s in the glass and want clearer, simpler words for what they’re tasting—without turning it into homework.

  • A winemaker’s first look · how colour, rim and line in the glass quietly set your expectations.
  • A way to talk about fruit and detail · how to separate the main fruit families from the small edges around them.
  • Texture, length and comfort · why good wines feel comfortable from first sip to finish, and a simple way to notice it.
  • A one-page cheat card · space for your own three-word notes as you taste over a month.
Send me the tasting guide
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About Matt & Smidge

You probably haven’t heard of Matt Wenk. That’s how he likes it.

For more than 30 vintages he’s been making wine in Australia and overseas. As founding winemaker at Two Hands Wines, Matt helped craft a record run of wines that appeared in Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines of the World ten years in a row.

Today he makes Smidge – a small, purpose-built, single-site winery in McLaren Vale, where the vineyard, winery, bottling and storage all sit on one site and every picking call, every barrel and every bottle is his.

How it works

  • Download · enter your email and we’ll send the PDF straight away.
  • Pour · use the prompts on any wine you enjoy at home or out.
  • Explore · if you like Matt’s approach, the follow-up emails share more from the winery and where to taste next.
Do I have to buy anything? No. The guide is free. If you’d like to taste the wines Matt talks about, we’ll share the First Pour Pack separately.
How often will you email me? You’ll get the guide and a handful of short notes over the first couple of weeks. After that we’ll check in occasionally with vineyard updates and small parcels.