Amazes me that anyone can get an accurate sense of any wine in these mass tastings. Especially when the wine is spit out, see John’s Diagram above. I really need time with a wine. I cannot recall the last time I went to any mass tasting, perhaps 15 years ago. If I visit wineries, I prefer a private appointment and time, like a visit I did at Copain that lasted an easy 1.5 hours and I tried about 12 different wines with solid pours and repeats if desired. I did spit about half of the time.
I think the notion that you can taste all day and not be impaired is wrong. When I go to large scale tastings, I take my time, spit like crazy, and if I’ve tasted a bunch of wines in a 2-3 hour period, I can absolutely feel some impairment. Even if you don’t swallow many tastes, some still gets through, and your tissues still absorb some alcohol. Some gets into your lungs as you breathe, where it is absorbed directly into the blood stream.
Even actively trying to avoid swallowing isn’t enough to prevent a moderate amount of alcohol absorption if continuously sampling wines over a period of hours.
even if i spit everything –
and i can religiously spit Yquem, Krug or Montrachet –
my ears will be glowing bright red within twenty minutes after having begun.
People do not get an accurate sense of the wines at mass tastings. No more than a psychiatrist can get an accurate sense of a patient if they see 100 patients in a day. The person does get some sense of the wines though, and for many professionals there simply isn’t an alternative methodology that is more accurate.
This is one of the reasons we accuse Parker of having undue influence on modern wine production. In mass tastings lower tannin, lower acid, higher texture and higher fruit presence(and/or sweetness) wines tend to stand out (as young 2007 CdP did when it was released) and really beautiful, savory, light to medium bodied wines of a complex nature often get lost or appear unpleasant.
I generally don’t taste beyond 20-25 wines in a day in the cellar. Sometimes there’s just no other option, but I generally don’t make a judgement on specific barrels until I have tasted them multiple times.
Cheers,
Marcus
I agree with Alan. We do absorb some alcohol through the mucus membranes and other tissue in our mouth and throat even without swallowing; the more that goes in the mouth, the more that will be absorbed. [Some medications, in fact, are intended to be administered in the mouth or under the tongue, not swallowed at all.]
Of course, people who drink a lot regularly, or have a higher tolerance for alcohol for whatever reason, will probably notice less of an effect.
I hate to say it but a breathalyzer cannot tell the difference between spitting and swallowing. If you have been spitting you MUST demand a blood test. It happened to a friend and after the blood test proved he was under the limit, he asked if he could take a breathalyzer which showed he would have been well over the limit.
It’s a nuisance, the cops don’t like it, and you will need to go to the station, and likely be arrested prior to the test.
Right. Putting aside the issue of how much alcohol you will consume while tasting/spitting at a mass event, if you are tasting/spitting at a mass event you typically are just getting one data point on the wine. As we all know, the wine can show very differently depending on serving temperature, how long the bottle has been open, amount of aeration, etc. And if you are at a mass tasting, inevitably it’s the larger-scaled wines that grab your attention instead of the most subtle/elegant wines. So to form an assessment of a wine based on a quick taste then spit at a large tasting is iffy at best, IMHO.
Bruce
When I go to a large tasting I know that my even spitting my palate is going to give out long before I taste as many wine as I want to sample. What I do is sample a bunch of wines and then instead of tasting a bunch more I’ll ask people I know what wines they liked and then if I haven’t already tasted those I’ll go and sample those wines. Also, when I walk up to a table with a bunch of wines to sample I’ll ask the person pouring the wine “if I wanted to try just one red wine which one should I try”. That way my palate lasts longer. Frankly I’m amazed at how few people at wine tastings spit wines.