You may have heard that real wine experts spit out each wine after tasting it, but if you’re at a French wine tasting event you probably won’t see a lot of spitting.
For those of us who are not professional sommeliers, wine tastings (dégustation) will generally be low-key events held either at a bar or wine cave, or hosted at the end of a vineyard tour.
The exact format varies, but you will usually be poured a variety of different wines to taste, while either the vineyard owner or a wine expert will talk to you about each wine and explain its properties and the tastes and scents that you are likely to experience.
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Although some are very serious, most of these events are relaxed and friendly and it’s all about enjoying yourself while learning a few things – so there’s no need to feel intimidated if you are not a wine expert.
But to come back to the question – spit or swallow?
At most tasting events there will be an ice bucket or similar container in the middle of the table.
This, however, is not for spitting – so please don’t make it like you’re in a Wild West movie and start gobbing out jets of wine in the rough direction of the bucket.
The bucket is for dregs and leftovers – at most tastings you will be poured between six or eight different wines, and it’s likely you will get a full glass of each.
The reason that a full glass is poured is to allow the scents of the wine to breathe and fill the glass, so you can fully experience the aroma, and then the taste.
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You don’t however, have to drink the full glass of each wine, and unless you have a very strong head for alcohol you’re likely to end up quite drunk if you do.
What most people do is take a couple of sips and then pour the remains into the bucket.
If you take a couple of small sips of each wine you will usually end up drinking the equivalent of 1-2 glasses of wine – enough to render you jovial but not drunk.
The usual format is to have the best wines at the end, so you want to ensure that you can still appreciate the flavours when you get to that point.
If you want to drink them all, however, there is nothing stopping you since you have, after all, paid for it. Provided you’re not driving or operating heavy machinery that’s entirely a personal choice.
So where does the spitting come in?
If you don’t want to drink at all – perhaps because you are driving – you might choose to spit out each wine. If that is your choice, you either spit it back into your glass, or request an extra glass to spit into.
People who almost always spit are professional wine judges – this is mainly a practical thing, since judges at a competition might be tasting dozens of wines in a single afternoon and need to retain their highly-trained critical faculties right until the end.
Ultimately it’s a personal choice which no one should judge you for, provided you remain discrete.
Dining and Cooking