At a wine tasting, what wines are too good to spit?!
At a wine tasting, what wines are too good to spit?
I normally spit at tastings so I can drive home safely, but I have a vertical tasting of Solaia coming up: tasting through 85, 88, 90, 91, 95, 97 and 2001.
What to do? Spit or swallow? I'm curious about what quality level people will use as a guide to when they will spit, and when the wines are so good that you must swallow?
Answers:
A pour at a tasting is usually 2 - 3 ounces. Usually it is not a regular pour of say 4-6 ounces. There really is no guide for a wine being so good, it should not be spit! Professional wine tasters spit expensive wines for a living. With that in mind, here are a few guidelines that may help you out. I think the most important consideration is quite simply a social consideration, i.e. who are your tasting peers?
1) Are you a professional taster? (Most likely you will be spitting)
2) Will you be taking written notes or otherwise recording your impressions of the wines? (Consider spitting)
3) What will everyone else be doing? I am not asking that you follow the herd, but unless this is a serious tasting with wine pros where spitting is quite common, spitting may be off putting to others!
4) Do you plan on buying any of the wines in the vertical?
5) Can you make it through the vertical without getting any buzz? This is the equivalent of about 3-4 beers which may be trouble for some - know your tolerance.
These are the most sensible guides I use for deciding wether or not to spit. I usually don't spit because I am a hedonist rather than a professional taster. The only time I spit is usually when there are more than 8 wines in flight(s).
Here is what I would do if I had the opportunity you have. Show up hungry, as this will make your nose more sensitive to the aromatics of each wine. Swirl, sniff, and savor each one, a row of Super Tuscans deserves no less! Eat plenty after you taste but not before or during (unless it is a bland bread or cracker to clear your palate). Bring snacks in your car if you must! Do not even think about driving buzzed!
Enjoy your vertical... I am envious!
If it were me and Solaia, the choice is pretty easy...swallow!
Source(s):
Jancis Robinson video, books by Charles Parker and Karen MacNeil
i don't spit, but them again i probably wont drive
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I am a woman and I like the taste of ice wine.
At the Victoria Wine Festival I tasted wines for 2 hours straight, well over 100 wines and I swallowed only 2 sips. One was Osoyoos Larose, a Bordeaux Blend from BC, because I couldn't reach the spit bucket. The other was a sip of Champagne at the end of the event, a well deserved reward which I blush to admit I don't even remember the name. Usually if it's a trade tasting I avoid swallowing and for pleasure I prefer to savour a wine not sample.
It really pisses me off at trade events when exhibitors and attendees chat right in front of the spit buckets or the spit buckets don't get emptied.
Don't spit the best tastes (your very favorites)!