How many wines can you taste in a day? Uh, 600?

WINE TALK
21

Well that’s the rub. At 200/day I was having issues figuring out what was good or what was just BIG and so made an impression. After all those wines that I tasted during my trip, I ended up picking only 3 wines.

22

Under ideal tasting conditions (a small brigade of assistants bagging the bottles, numbering them, numbering the glasses, no external distractions whatever, etc) I’d buy up to 150-200 wines a day but certainly not every day.

As to 600, allowing one minute per tasting, another minute to write up one’s notes, another minute later to formalize those notes (and believe me that would be quick!) that involves 1800 minutes per day. Add to that let’s say four five minute toilet breaks, two 10 minutes breaks to stuff down a sandwich and say three hours of sleep, we are now at
1900 minutes. Considering that there are only 1440 minutes in a day I doubt that even the combination of Jesus, the Buddha and Moses could manage that amount.

Perhaps a bit of poetic license?

Best
Rogov

23

She’s a master somm, is prone to hyperbole and uses the pronoun “I” incessantly - I change my location vote for Berserkferst II to Emily Wines’ pad.

24

How many wines can I taste in a day and actually evaluate them effectively? Don’t know… probably only a dozen or so. [training.gif]

25

I’m with Claude - no chance. It is certainly possible to put that many glasses to your lips in one day, but not to taste that many wines critically. Even if you spit, I would think that you’d absorb quite a bit of alcohol sublingually. And I wouldn’t give anyone who tries to taste this many wines (or a third as many) the checkbook to make purchases on my behalf

26

That’s a long time to wait, but if that is when I am needed, I’ll do my best to be “prepared” to be of assistance. [thankyou.gif]

27

i have to agree that tasting that many wines critically would be nigh impossible and an awful task to boot.

at any rate it sounds like she is the master sommelier but not the master traveler

28

When I was a kid in Atlantic City about 44 years ago I ended up in a line with about 150 guys all waiting for some woman that was apparently an excellent taster of large quantities. I got bored of the wait and left.
blush

29

I’d much rather buy wine from someone with a good palate that picked the best of 50 in a day than from someone who thinks they can evaluate 600 of wines a day and make intelligent choices. In fact, I’d wager that the “best of 50” will producer better wines than a “best of 500” tasting. Any asshole can go through the motions with 600 wines and then choose to purchase some.

30

I think using the word “tasting” and 600 wines per day is stretch at a minimum. “Anesthetized” might be a more appropriate word. I’m throwing the b.s. flag, mostly because I’ve never used this emoticon. hitsfan

31

Honestly, about 3 or 4; after that, I notice a loss of acuity that diminishes rapidly.
I suppose, I could do another 3 or 4, 12 hours later and still be in the same “day,” but in a sitting, I know my limits - even when spitting.
Best, Jim

32

600 wines?..think about it…if you spent just 1.5 minutes on each wine…tasting a different wine every 90 seconds…it would take 15 hours. That doesn’t allow any time for meals or bathroom breaks. I don’t even think that you could pound them out at 90 seconds per wine…you’d still have the taste of the prior wine fresh in your mouth while your nose would be in the next wine. At 2 minutes per wine it would take twenty hours…no breaks. Sounds a little exaggerated to me…but maybe she has a catheter in her while she tastes?

33

If I try really hard, I think I can taste 200 but I will be sick by the end of the day.

34

And I’m thinkin’ you might need more than a couple of those! rolleyes

50 is a lot. 100 is questionable. Maybe some on their best day can do 200. Not me. 600? No way.

35

Daniel Rogov - your numbers are mistaken. You’re making too many assumptions. I’m sitting here with a glass of wine, I punched the stopwatch and started. Taste, evaluate, write, and I’ve got a few seconds left to put the wine down and try the next one before the minute is up. So that’s only a minute per wine. In a ten hour day why couldn’t she accurately assess 600 wines? After all, she’s certified!

Now let’s think it thru further. She’s not going to take bathroom breaks, because she’s wearing those diapers that the lady astronaut wore when she drove cross-country to kill her lover’s wife or whatever she was planning. So when she has to go, she just goes in place, as it were. A catheter is uncomfortable and can cause infection, so a double layer of Depends is the only way to go if you’re serious about wine.

Second, she doesn’t need to have lunch, etc., nor does she talk to anybody during this tasting event. Someone is pouring the wines, someone else is emptying her spit bucket, and she’s just tasting away. This is not about food and wine pairing, it’s about wine.

Third, she’s not writing notes. Why would she? She’s not a critic! A critic can only taste 100-200 wines a day because he (or she) is giving an honest and informed assessment. This lady is only deciding whether she’ll buy or not. So notes are superfluous.

Fourth, she’s female. Judging from the pictures, she probably comes in at somewhere south of 200 pounds. Although men metabolize alcohol faster than women, and a man and a woman of equal weight will not metabolize the alcohol at the same rate, we are dealing with someone who is certified and who may very well be an outlier in the matabolic data curve. Therefore I’m taking the liberty of assuming that this woman who may weigh 130 or so can metabolize alcohol faster than a man who weighs 225, which coincidentally happens to be my weight.

Therefore, she can spend a day, a long one to be sure, but just one day, tasting wine at her leisure and can easily go thru 600 wines.

And that’s the honest truth.

Hell, it’s in the New York Times.

36

Come on guys…

I saw this this morning. Clearly she was just trying to make a point about tasting a lot of wine and threw out a random high number. Could have as easily said 60 or 6,000. And think about it, someone sits down and talks to you for 45 minutes and then writes up say the 6 or 7 best sentences. Let’s cut her some slack.

37

Exactly. A genuine Berserker. Perhaps the only true Berserker on Earth. She makes the rest of us look like pikers.

38

[rofl.gif] [welldone.gif]

39

Precisely. We pulled 148 '08 barrel samples last month, tasted in flights of 6, and discussed each barrel after taking notes and going back to each glass and tasting them 2 or 3 times. We started at 10am and finished at 7pm. But we were in one place, having samples already pulled, took one short break, and just barreled through. So tasting 600 times is possible, but I would imagine it would have to be set up in advance and done in one place to do it in one day. 600 different wines would be a feat!

40

I think 600 wines is totally possible - tasting them I mean, not having something to say about them. You don’t need several minutes on each wine, you need about 10 seconds or so to taste them. Another second for a binary scoring style. Most of the time an appointment at a producer would last 30-45 minutes and we taste through 10+ easily, including chatting + critical tasting + note taking + formalities, picking up the wine, paying for it, etc. Even if we only did wine tasting it would still come down to 3-4 minutes per wine on average. I know I’ve done 120 wines before at 5 producers in Burgundy + lunch + dinner. We still had to drive, chat, etc. I was dead at the end of the day and let’s not even talk about my palate, but if you don’t care it doesn’t matter.

600 wines, 30 seconds per wine = 5 hours. That’s a lot of time left for lunch, dinner, and potty breaks (and a few cigarettes for palate cleansing :slight_smile: