Its actually very easy to taste and appreciate wine and you can pickup the steps and knowledge in 3mins.

Steps

1. Look : Looking at the wine after tilting the glass to see the color changes and clarity of the wine. Red wine loses their color and turns more brownish after years.
2. Swirl : Swirl the wine to bring out the fragrance (do it without spilling either by swirling your glass around the stem in the air or on the tabletop)
3. Sniff : Take a sniff twice, once near the glass and once with your nose in the glass. Appreciate the flavors.
4. Sip : Take a sip and roll the wine around your taste buds to experience the different taste of the wine. Breathe through your nose while doing this to increase the flavor of the wine.
5. Finish: As the wine flows down your throat, open your mouth slightly to allow the air in to mix with the wine and notice how the taste opens up as it goes down. This can be enhanced with the right combination of food. A good wine has a long finish where the taste stays with you even after the wine is gone.

Tips

1. A good wine is when its highly recommended, won awards and aged donkey years in the cellars. A great wine is when you love the wine every time you taste it, regardless of its variety, age… and whatever.
2. Tannins is a term to describe the sort of bitter (sometimes described as dry) side of the wine in the middle portion during tasting. Comes from grape skin, seeds and stems. To understand what it taste like, go bite into a grape stem. Let wine air for a while to reduce the tannins (often in young wine)
3. Always finish the bottle once u pop it open. Never allow it to sit to turn acidic and sour overnight! It tastes different no matter how well u seal it back due to oxidation that has taken place.

Reading wine labels

Check out this great link in understanding the complex labels on the wine bottles.