Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[linnea]

My daughter (who just turned 5!) recently got the message that you're supposed to spit out the toothpaste.  Comically, she has not yet developed the necessary oral skills, so we do that part of the evening routine naked.  Well, she's naked anyway.  That's not the sort of thing daddys get undressed for.

Like your wee bairn, I am also spitting-impaired, unlike most guys who got lots of practice in grade school. I read an article about sommeliers and how they have to bring the strong sack when they spit wine during a tasting. Apparently it's a huge deal, and you have to do it with precision and power or else the other sommeliers laugh at you. I can't imagine having such a developed palate that I would have the go-ahead to taste wine and then spit it out, much less doing so in a graceful manner. I doubt I'll ever get good at it, which is fortunate because I doubt I'll ever become that accomplished at tasting wine.

[Muse_Of_Fire]

pfft. Spit out WINE? Are you crazy? I know sommeliers have to do it, and it's part of the ritual; particularly in a tasting where there is a lot to taste (you want your mental acuity sharp from the first pour to the last, after all), but I have been to quite a few tastings and have never spit out or poured out wine, ever. Well, once, I think, when I didn't like the wine, but linnea, you can be an accomplished taster without having to do all the snooty gymnastics. Here's the test: when you put something in your mouth, can you decide within a few seconds whether you like it or not? If so, then you can taste wine.

All that stuff about picking out floral notes and yaddah yaddah simply comes with time and experience, which fortunately means you get to go to lots of tastings and drink lots of wine while you develop that experience. And leave the spitting out and the snob yoga to the professionals. Pour, swirl, sniff, drink. Drink some more. Keep drinking. Taste lots. Have fun with your new hobby. Choose a designated driver. Book a hotel within walking distance of the vineyard. Laugh much.

[linnea]

pfft. Spit out WINE? Are you crazy? I know sommeliers have to do it, and it's part of the ritual; particularly in a tasting where there is a lot to taste (you want your mental acuity sharp from the first pour to the last, after all), but I have been to quite a few tastings and have never spit out or poured out wine, ever. Well, once, I think, when I didn't like the wine, but linnea, you can be an accomplished taster without having to do all the snooty gymnastics. Here's the test: when you put something in your mouth, can you decide within a few seconds whether you like it or not? If so, then you can taste wine.

All that stuff about picking out floral notes and yaddah yaddah simply comes with time and experience, which fortunately means you get to go to lots of tastings and drink lots of wine while you develop that experience. And leave the spitting out and the snob yoga to the professionals. Pour, swirl, sniff, drink. Drink some more. Keep drinking. Taste lots. Have fun with your new hobby. Choose a designated driver. Book a hotel within walking distance of the vineyard. Laugh much.

The folks who get paid vast sums of money for their highly accomplished palates are pretty much the only ones who spit out wine. Sommeliers get paid to buy wine, that's why they go through the testing and spitting so they can decide what to buy. They HAVE to spit the wine or else they'd quickly get drunk and their skills would be off. For example, Las Vegas supposedly has the highest number of sommeliers of any other city in the world. 

Although I'm a perfume and wine nerd and I enjoy being able to deconstruct either composition in order to better understand it and better enjoy it, I will never good enough to be a professional perfumer or sommelier. If I'm lucky I'll have a wine cellar when I'm old, but the only wine I plan to spit is when I'm drinking a glass at dinner and my tablemates say something ridiculously hilarious at the wrong moment and I end up spitting the wind via my nose.

[theinevitable]

my childhood best-friend's dad is a sommelier (is that still the same word? He picks out the wines they will sell.) for one of the biggest chains of supermarkets in California, as well as some restaurants.
My parents love him, because he can recommend, like, a good 30$ wine just as well as he can recommend a good 300$ wine. He is an awesome guy.

[Sub_Topical]

My parents love him, because he can recommend, like, a good 30$ wine just as well as he can recommend a good 300$ wine. He is an awesome guy.

And well they should, that knowledge is priceless.

[jaydub]

And well they should, that knowledge is priceless.

I grade wine knowledge on the scale of prices between which one can discriminate.  If a 5-gallon jug of Gallo tastes the same to you as 1990 Romanée-Conti La Tache, then you have the lowest level of discrimination.  On the other hand, if you can distinguish between '91 and '93 vintages of Opus One (in a double blind test, naturally) you have achieved a stratospheric, if inhuman, level of skill.  Personally, I can tell the difference between a $20 wine and a $50, but everything beyond that is indistinguishable (other than - maybe - broadly classed by varietal).  I haven't improved on this much in the last 15 years, so I've probably reached some sort of biological limit.

On the other hand, it doesn't wreck the wallet to pick a wine I'm likely to enjoy.

[Muse_Of_Fire]

I grade wine knowledge on the scale of prices between which one can discriminate.  If a 5-gallon jug of Gallo tastes the same to you as 1990 Romanée-Conti La Tache, then you have the lowest level of discrimination.  On the other hand, if you can distinguish between '91 and '93 vintages of Opus One (in a double blind test, naturally) you have achieved a stratospheric, if inhuman, level of skill.  Personally, I can tell the difference between a $20 wine and a $50, but everything beyond that is indistinguishable (other than - maybe - broadly classed by varietal).  I haven't improved on this much in the last 15 years, so I've probably reached some sort of biological limit.

On the other hand, it doesn't wreck the wallet to pick a wine I'm likely to enjoy.

I'm about in the same boat as you, jaydub, in terms of my palate for wine. It's a useful and pleasant place to be.

...if you can distinguish between '91 and '93 vintages of Opus One (in a double blind test, naturally) you have achieved a stratospheric, if inhuman, level of skill...

...and you need to run away with me and be my oenophiliac love-slave.

[Nabubrush]

I can tell the difference between Boone's Farm and Mad Dog 20-20. Can I live in your garage?

[V-Adore]

I remember now -- I remember now -- why they called it Thunderbird.

(... Sorry, wrong thread?)

[coldfrog]

Current toddler status, 3/6
We spent the better part of the morning eating toothpaste and clipping our toenails.

A hangover morning if ever there was one.

[wombat]

Current toddler status, 3/9
She went to stay with her grandparents for the evening and, wouldn't you know, I watched a Law & Order episode about toddlers getting iced. Hooray for a way bad-shitty TV call.

[CortJstr]

I remember now -- I remember now -- why they called it Thunderbird.

(... Sorry, wrong thread?)

On Earth, my Nina?

[jaydub]

I can tell the difference between Boone's Farm and Mad Dog 20-20. Can I live in your garage?

No, but there's an abandoned trailer down by the crick with your name all over it.

[Nabubrush]

No, but there's an abandoned trailer down by the crick with your name all over it.

Homeward bound . . . I wish I was . . .

[RMJ12345]

Current toddler status, 3/11
Freezepop came to visit, and she offered to knock over a block tower with her butt.

Is that the band that made the song about Phillipe?