We sometimes do a friendly wine tasting. The idea is to discover good, well priced wines available locally - something that you might not have bought yourself. Everyone brings a bottle, they are taken away by who ever is acting as sommelier for the evening, and then given a number. So, the whole thing is 'blind'. Scores are given etc etc... And eventual winners and losers announced (everyone also brings a small prize, so prizes are handed out as well). The amount tasted is basically no more than a thimble or two, there is no spittoon. Would we get different results if we did, or is it OK to do this in our friendly tasting sessions.
asked Feb 14, 2017 at 6:00
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PS: The prizes make it fun, and we have found some great wines at silly prices which we normally wouldn't have bought - the party works.– dougal 5.0.0Commented Feb 14, 2017 at 6:01
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2 Answers
The primary effect a spitoon would have, is less alcohol recpetion (some alcohol will get into the blood via the mouth-mucus). The alcohol could lead to different results for the later wines.
You might get a more intense taste of the wine if you could take more of it into your mouth and "wash" with it. Even more if you take a sip, wash, gulp/spit, take another sip and taste.
Maybe you want to try it, when you drink a glass of wine next time and then decide if the bigger sips / double sipping makes a difference to you.
If it does but you dislike the idea of a spitoon, try reducing the number of wines per evening, so the increasing intoxication is not a problem.
I really like your version of private tastings and might adopt some ideas from it. Have fun!
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Hi. I live on a boat, normally for these tastings we have no more than 12 people, which of course means 12 bottles. We have had so much fun, the prizes make it a great evening - only a couple of bucks a throw! Commented Feb 14, 2017 at 16:23
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We tend to tell people that the spittoon is over the side of the boat - but sailors being what they are.......! Commented Feb 14, 2017 at 16:24
It's fairly common in the wine trade to spit wine when evaluating wine as a buyer, winemaker, sommelier because you will get trashed if you drank everything.
So there are two ways to spit. There is the common spit "bucket" and the paper coffee cup methods. When I taught at our local community college, they had every student spit wine into white paper coffee cups. Some people don't want to touch a common spit bucket and not everyone one is good at spitting with precision, so I recommend the coffee cup approach for beginners. You should see real professionals, they can spit into a bucket from 20 feet!
There is a technique to it that takes a little bit of mastery so you don't end up dribbling wine all down your chin and clothes, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy.
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If I let people try the 20ft spitting thing our neighbors would complain! Commented Feb 18, 2017 at 7:46