7 Tips to Taste Like a Winemaker
Free PDF guide
A short, practical guide from Matt Wenk to help you notice more in the glass — without making wine feel complicated.
In our small, purpose-built winery in McLaren Vale, Matt tastes every week — new ferments, trials, barrels and finished wines about to leave the site. This guide shares seven simple checks he actually uses, so you can taste with more confidence at home.
- 7 practical checks you can use with any wine
- a clearer way to notice aroma, texture and balance
- a simple tasting card to use at home
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What’s inside
This guide is for people who enjoy wine and want a clearer way to understand what they are tasting. Not tasting notes for show. Just a more useful way to notice what matters.
- where to start when the wine first hits the glass
- how to think about aroma without overcomplicating it
- what texture, weight and line really mean
- how fruit, acid, tannin and oak sit together
- what the finish tells you
- how to use your own words with more confidence
- a one-page tasting card to help you practise
About Matt and Smidge
Smidge is led by winemaker Matt Wenk — thoughtful, experienced, and quietly uncompromising in the pursuit of wines with clarity, depth and character.
Matt has spent more than 30 years making wine across Australia and overseas. Before founding Smidge, he was the founding winemaker at Two Hands Wines, where wines under his care appeared in Wine Spectator’s Top 100 for 10 consecutive years.
Today, Smidge is a small, purpose-built winery in McLaren Vale, where vineyard, winery, bottling and storage all sit on one site. The scale is smaller, the work is closer, and the decisions stay personal.
Why this guide helps
Many people enjoy wine but feel they should be noticing more than they are.
Matt’s approach is practical. Start with a few simple checks. Learn what to look for. Repeat often enough that it becomes natural.
The aim is not to sound technical. It is to feel more at ease with what is in your glass.
What happens next
Once you request the guide, we’ll email it to you straight away.
After that, we may send a few short follow-up notes with practical tasting help, winery insight and occasional offers from Smidge.
If you would rather start with the wines themselves, you can also explore the Start Here collection or book a tasting at the winery.