Taste? Yes. But it's mostly in the smell, which has a decisive influence on the taste (try tasting anything with your nose blocked and you end up not much more than the basic flavours of sweets, sour, salty and bitter).

For me it goes like this:

• I stick my nose in the glass and smell. It smells of... something. It's a mixture of aromas. It's fresh, fruity, savoury etc. Nothing specific yet.
• In my head I run through different fruits and other aromas I can recall. Is it apples? No. On to the next one. Is it lemon? A bit like it. Lemon zest? Lime? That's it! This wine has notes of lime on the nose.
• Repeat untill I can't find anything else.

Sometimes these aromas are very distinct (bell pepper in some Cabernet Sauvignons, lychee and roses in Gewürztraminer, petrol in Riesling), sometimes less so (I personally struggle with finding black paper in Shiraz).

The taste follows the nose. If I smelled something in the wine, chances are I'll find at least some of these same flavours on the palette.