Power Tasting, Sobriety & Keeping Your Palate Operational & Clear
Visitors to California wine country practice what we locals call ‘Power Tasting.’ They’re here for a weekend and want to make the most of it. Sometimes that means visiting four or five wineries on the day.
Six hours of 30+ wine samples can be a lot of alcohol and calls your sobriety into question. That’s over two standard bottle of vino. As well, halfway through the day you can’t taste the wine you’re sampling. Your palate is overwhelmed. Your sample tastes like wine, but is it Zin, Pinot or Cab?
Too much alcohol flooding your mouth burns your palate. Have you ever found yourself craving cheese, ice cream or meat during a day of tasting? That’s because your palate craves some fat, something to counter balance the acid and alcohol you’ve inundated your tongue with.
| ‘When asking for short pours, wine hosts know we are sampling, not drinking.’ |
So how do you cram all this fun into a weekend without letting the alcohol get the better of you?
The answer is simple. ‘Spit & Dump’
When you are sampling always ask for a Dump Bucket. Tell the wine host you love their wine but you can’t possibly drink it all. You want to taste all the wonderful wines of the region you are visiting. Pour unwanted wine out after sampling.
This isn’t alien to wine hosts. They dump wine glasses themselves. We witnessed massive dumping at a Southern Wines and Spirits sampling day several years back. There is so much dumping that the wait staff busily carted off buckets of discarded wine sampled by bar owners, restaurateurs, golf clubs and yacht clubs.
Why do they Spit & Dump? Because they want to keep their palate and head clear for wine tasting. Alcohol and a burned palate impede decision making.
Pacing, pacing, pacing. Take it easy.
In fact, wine hosts respect you if you are practicing Spit & Dump. They’ll know you’re not out just for a buzz. They respect you because they realize you’re tasting, not guzzling.
The same goes for drinking an entire sample. You don’t need 2+ ounces of wine to decide whether or not you like it. We often times ask for short pours during our second tastings. The host knows we’re sampling, not drinking. Because of our behavior they’re likely to offer off menu wines for our tasting pleasures. Magic things happen when your wine host takes a liking to you.
‘Spitting’ a sample is a simple solution also (though you’re not ‘spitting’, you’re expressing your wine into a cup.) Ask for a small water cup (or look around the room and find their iced water and cups- grab a cup.) If you taste the wine and it doesn’t sing for you, express it into a cup and dump. Wine hosts respect this also.
When asking for short pours wine hosts know we are sampling, not drinking. And if you want to revisit one of the short pours because it was beautiful wine? Just ask for a revisit. Tell the wine host you enjoyed that particular Pinot or Zinfandel or Cabernet and you’d like to sample it again. They’re more than happy to pour another taste.
Another solution is drink plenty of water between stops. Hydrate often and you’ll enjoy your Power Tasting with an intact palate and minimal brain fade.
By all means though, if you love a wine, drink up. Enjoying the taste of wine is the whole point of visiting wine country and one of many reasons we live in Paso (along with all the daily/weekend live music concerts.)
Some notes on our wine ranking system.
Bill & Erin Hodge write about California Wine, the estates & winemakers producing them and educational information about Vino. Living in California Wine Country provides a front row seat to the places you want to visit the most here in the Golden State.
– -✰ means -What’s next on your list of wines
-✰ means -Not liking it too much
✰ means -We’ll drink this wine, especially if it’s hosted!
✰+ means -You’ve got our attention and we might buy this wine.
✰+ + means -We’re hooked and we’re going to buy this wine.
When you see -✰/✰+ with a slash, it means we disagree.
