You’ve decided to get some friends together and go wine tasting. But other than getting a little sideways, what are you hoping to get from tasting?

After more than a thousand wine tours, and spending months on the other side of the bar pouring wine, I’ve learned that tasters appreciate knowing the “do’s and don’ts” of wine tasting.

So what are the top five tips for wine tasting? Here they are:

1) Have Fun

First and foremost, have fun. Wine tasting doesn’t have to be snooty. It’s about trying anything and everything. It’s about surprising yourself by finding wines you never thought you’d like. And it’s about pairing wines YOU like with food YOU eat–no rules, just suggestions. If you like White Zinfandel (okay–hopefully not) with prime rib, that’s up to you.

2) Swirl and Sniff

You will get about a 1-ounce pour of wine in your glass for you to evaluate. So how do you do that? First, swirl it around in your glass vigorously getting the wine up the sides of the glass as you swirl. You’re doing this to help aerate the wine and release the aroma or “nose” of the wine so you can get an idea of what the wine will taste like. Once you’ve swirled for a few seconds, hold the glass up to your nose and take a good sniff. And when you hold the glass up to your nose, don’t just wave it around under your nose–get your nose down into the glass. You don’t have the hum and hold your ear like Myles does in “Sideways,” but do get your nose down into the glass. Can you identify what you smelling? It takes a little practice because wine can smell like hundreds of things from lavender to leather; vegetable to berry; vanilla to cigar. But the main thing is, do you like the way it smells?

3) Take Two Sips

In order to get an idea of whether you like the wine or not, you need to take at least two sips of the wine. Wine shouldn’t be judged on the first sip. You may still have something influencing your taste buds like the coffee you had for breakfast, the gum you were chewing, or the previous wine you just tasted. So take at least two sips before deciding if you like the wine or not.

4) Swish and Breathe

One way to really evaluate the wine during your two sips is to take the first sip and really work it around in your mouth like mouth wash. Your tongue has various taste sensors all over it, so if you just gulp the wine down, it only hits the back of your tongue and doesn’t give you an idea of what the wine tastes like. Now that you’ve swished the first sip around in your mouth and swallowed it, take a second sip and swallow as usual. Then take a breath in through your mouth and slowly breath out through your nose. This technique takes the flavor of the wine straight to the back of your pallet and up into your olfactory sensors. Right then you’ll know if you like this wine or not, and you can choose to finish the taste or dump the remaining wine in the dump bucket and be ready for the next taste.

5) Don’t Rinse

It’s best not to rinse your glass with water between tastes. The alkaline in water changes the PH in the wine and alters the taste. And you may think you got all the water out the glass before the next pour, but there is always some left in the glass unless you can dry it completely. Now if you’re an avid rinser, have at it! But know that if you liked a wine you tasted after rinsing your glass with water, and bought a bottle to take home with you, it’s going to taste different when you open it at home than it did at the tasting room. Unless, of course, you rinse your glass with water at home before pouring wine into it.

These are the basic tips for having a successful day of wine tasting, but, remember, you’ll see people doing all kinds of techniques when wine tasting. It’s it to you to decide what techniques work best for you. Keep it simple, have fun, and enjoy the wine.