LOL! I'm seeing this with each visit. Seriously, swallow the more expensive ones, spit the poorer ones, unless I'm looking for a buzz.

How cool is it to bea able to say "Yeah I just tasted 40 wines for the day. I'm a pro."

Make sure you bring the painkillers...

Sascha

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Originally posted by yhn:
Of course here in our local Santa Cruz Mountains, it's often the winemaker who's slobbering out "Hey buhdy, lehme shplor ya sh'more dat caberet..."

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I think it all depends on how many wines you´re supposed to taste, and how serious you want to be. At work, I always spit, since I couldn´t handle tasting more than say ten wines without being influenced by the alcohol. At home or with friends, I don´t mind getting a little tipsy, and then I don´t always spit.

If you go to Navarro they give you a personal spit mug. Wow, what a thoughtful winery, I really liked that!

BobH's idea of bringing plastic cups to spit into and them dump in the bucket is great. It's pretty disgusting if you get close enough to the spit bucket to smell it.

I also had Pauly's experience of blowing money on wines I only liked when drunk, so designated drivers just aren't good enough for me! I'm decidedly a tasting spitter now!

Nancy

Dirtyest thread ever on this here board.

I got no remorse for the things I've done, watch out honey were gonna have some FUN!

Since I started this, let me tell you the way we do it when we taste.

I tend to take 3 very small sips of the first wine to get the mouth ready. then the next wines I only sip small amounts and rely on my smells and sips to connect. If they dont, I dont buy it. I will pour undrunk wine in the spitoon.

Then in the car I have a small igloo cooler that we fill with cheese, grapes and some bread or crackers. we eat on the way to the next one, sip some water and by the time they pour any buzz picked up at the last place is gone.

Now I can only do about 5 or 10 of these in a day before it all catches up. But by that time i hope to be home with someting on the stove or the grill and something else in my glass waiting to be swallowed.

By the way, I loved the idea of the disposable cups and will be suggesting that to my friends that are tasting room managers. Im sure they will appreciate less splashback

Flubis G. Twigg

swallow

Last year we went on our first visit ever to Sonoma and Napa. In each region we hit, at most, 8 to 10 wineries in an 8 hour period. The amount poured didn't amount to more than probably 1.5oz. I felt compelled to swallow so that I could fully evaluate the wine. This is of course just me. For me there are aromas that filter back up through the nose that gives a better indication for me as to what the wine has to offer(aftertaste?). Because there was about 30 to 45 minutes between tastings the buzz was not an issue. I think those that can get the full effect of what a wine has to offer while spitting are lucky as you can indeed hit more tasting rooms and evaluate wines better when you don't have a buzz.

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Originally posted by dbutson:
I think those that can get the full effect of what a wine has to offer while spitting are lucky as you can indeed hit more tasting rooms and evaluate wines better when you don't have a buzz.

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8 to 10 wineries a day? Yikes.
I think it's pretty much impossible to truly evaluate the wine after about the third or fourth stop if you are swallowing everything. Professional judges don't swallow.
Probably the best compromise is to swallow a very small sample or the wines you are really interested in then spit the rest.

Dbutson - I understand your point, and you´re quite right when saying that you better can get the full effect of the wine when swallowing. But then again, do you need to get the full effect when you´re only tasting, or is it an indication of what kind of wine it is, and wether you want to buy some of it or not, that you need at that time? Because, unless you have really phenomenal tastebuds in the back of your throat, I can´t imagine it would make such a huge difference?

But I´m young and not even half as experienced as most of you here, so I might very well be wrong!

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Originally posted by BobH:

quote:

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Originally posted by dbutson:
I think those that can get the full effect of what a wine has to offer while spitting are lucky as you can indeed hit more tasting rooms and evaluate wines better when you don't have a buzz.

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8 to 10 wineries a day? Yikes.
I think it's pretty much impossible to truly evaluate the wine after about the third or fourth stop if you are swallowing everything. Professional judges don't swallow.
Probably the best compromise is to swallow a very small sample or the wines you are really interested in then spit the rest.

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I am obviously not a professional judge when it comes to assessing a wine. The amount served was very small so it didn't pose a problem. Come to think of it, I didn't notice a spitoon (sp) near the counter. Then again I didn't look. The next time I am in the area I may very well try the drink-and-spit approach to see if I can discern the wines qualities without the need to swallow. At the stage I was at last year I really got more of an indication of the wines character from swallowing. Newbie alert!

Thanks for the response.

With due respect to those who need to swallow to "get the full effect" please consider the poor winemakers out there:-

At blending time, maybe 50 or 60 tank/barrel samples each morning.

Then at fining, up to 12 or so samples of each wine to be evaluated for copperfining, casein fining, egg white fining ... whatever; maybe four or five wines each time.

Surprisingly few of them are alcoholics.

Now they are making the wines for you to enjoy, if they DIDN"T spit you might get some surprises (yes, alright, you do).

By the way Kicker, even though spitting, you still inhale some of the volatile alcohol components; if you are doing a big professional tasting, watch your driving levels.

In Finland, don't they fine you on your lifetime possible earnings if caught over the limit? It would be a massive deterent, I am sure you'll agree.

Vinserve - I´m not letting myself getting lured into that debate again...

Flubis want everyone's opinion.
So here goes mine.

I almost never spit unless the wine is disgusting.
Because in nearly all situations I only taste a few wines and I merely taste them for pleasure.
Only hypocrits would say the alcohol is not part of the pleasure.

However, on the few occasions on which I would taste large amounts (say 10+) wines, I would definitely spit. Because otherwise it would get you drunk and the alcohol would totally ruin your possibility to adequately taste.

For an extreme take on the matter, Paul Masson said that "tasting" a wine means nothing. It's how it "drinks" that matters.
What that means is that a wine tasting only gives you an idea of what a wine is like. Dan Berger likes to point out how tannic monster wines stand out in competitions and get big scores and all, and some wines that might be the most pleasurable in a dining atmosphere (ie. drink well), often gets overlooked in a competition.

So maybe you should try to seek out the quality from the start, spit out the crap and the ordinary, and seek out what really gives you pleasure. Follow up, ask for seconds, experience it.

I certainly do often taste wines that are exciting up front, but don't really follow through to make a satisfying drinking experience.