The Case for Spitting

Your mamma taught you the good manners about not spitting in public. And it is very likely that some other people in your life were really passionate non-spitting advocates. Yet, there is an active spitters group, and they are not displaying bad manners. They simply don’t want to get high.

We are talking now about spitting wine as a way for not getting drunk.

Yes, for the purposes of this blog, spitting is allowed.

By now, you’ve probably seen wine tasters who ask for the spitting bucket or cup. They take a sip of wine, swirl it through their mouth, gargle it and spit it out. Then they take notes on a little journal about the taste. Their tongue gets the flavors of the wine, the different components of it – but the wine does not get into their blood stream and they won’t get drunk. Think about the fact that professional tasters can evaluate up to 100 wines a day, for judging competitions. That is a lot. And for amateurs like me, the whole purpose of wine tasting is not to get drunk, but to discover new wines I would like to buy and bring home, share with friends.

Unfortunately, many tasting rooms don’t give you a spitting cup. It is no shame in asking for one. Better than swallowing (and we are specifically talking about swallowing wine). Case in point – me, two nights ago, at a tasting at Whole Foods. Don’t get me wrong, I love the place and the people working there. My problem was that I did not ask for a spitting cup and they generously pour – while wineries sparingly drip in your glass. And I liked the wine. And there were five wines. And I thought about what my mamma said “it’s not nice to spit.”

Well, it was the boyfriend’s task to drag me home and mock me all the way back. Although, I am sure he is a non-spitting advocate, as well.

 

The Sniffing Issue

We are all sniffing creatures. Things we eat or drink, should smell good to us. While the tongue recognizes five tastes, our nose can identify hundreds of scents. If you ever tasted something without smelling it, you lost more than half of the pleasure. This being said, let’s see how and why people sniff the wine, before tasting it.

Swirl and sniff: After you looked at the color, you should swirl the glass and smell the wine inside it, to see if you like it. When it is sealed in the bottle, the wine does not interact with the oxygen (it can cause oxidizing and the wine goes bad). But once it gets poured in the glass and swirled, the particles in the wine get mixed with the oxygen from the air, they “breathe” and release the smell. Sniffing is an important factor in evaluating if you like the wine or not – but not the only one. I have smelled wines that didn’t give much away, but had an absolutely wonderful taste. And I experienced wines that smelled divine and only to leave a nasty aftertaste. There are surprises in every vintage.

How to do it: The proper swirling is done by holding the glass by its stem. If you hold it by the “fatty” part, the wine gets warm from your hand and you don’t want to change its temperature, which may change the taste as well. There is another way or swirling it, without splashing it over your clothes – and I, the queen of klutzes - do it like this: set the glass on the table, hold the stem wherever is convenient for you, keep it pressed on the table and make a few round circles with the glass, for 10-15 seconds. After you swirl, you can stick your nose inside the glass, any way you feel comfortable to do it. Make sure to close your eyes for a few seconds – to suppress sight and enhance the other senses. Then, smell the wine. Let your nose and mind recognize the scents. Don’t worry if you cannot identify them all, as the specialists do. That part does not matter. What matters is your experience, what the smell makes you feel. And, trust me: you will be able to make the difference between a good wine and a bad one.

What to smell: There are specialists who recommend sniffing only the reds – because those are “big wines”. I’d say – bollocks. You should smell whites, reds, sparkling and spirits. I’ve recently had a spirits tasting at a distillery and while the alcohol stung my nose, I could identify the cherry and smoked flavors of the single malt. And this was pretty big for someone who knew nothing to zero about wines, just a few months ago.

 

In the Name of the Mother

How many times did you write down your thoughts, because you consider them valuable? From journals to books, people write to be recognized or because they have something to say. I write because I want my mother to know. This primary lesson I got starting my journalist career: “you have to explain the news simply and effectively – so your mother can understand.”

My mom often asks me how it is where I live and what things I am going through. She is 63 years old and was not exposed to as many foreign things as I was (and still am). I have to detail things simply and carefully – as she lives in Eastern Europe, where culture and laws are entirely different. I want her to be part of my life and experiences.

Talking about the wine industry and agriculture is the same (at least as much as I have learned so far). I just heard in class: less than 2% of the Americans are involved in any form of agriculture. A speaker from the Farm Bureau of Sonoma County (California) explained most kids have never touched any animal other than a cat, dog or guinea pig. How will they know that meat comes from a chicken, a pig or a cow, if they have never been around one? Do we want to raise a generation of ignorance? Can you wrap your mind around the fact that 98% of a population of 313,232,044 people* has little to no idea where exactly the egg comes from?

Coming back to another segment of agriculture – grapes and wine, I must say that I was terrified of the topic, before I started taking classes about it, three months ago. Then I was revolted to learn that wine is considered a luxury product, and the sophistication well maintained in explaining about wine keeps people away from enjoying and consuming it. How then, would winemakers explain their existence and work if they want to share the product with only a selective circle? If the lack of information prevents my mother discovering and enjoying wine, then I have to write about it; my mother deserves to know as well.

*That is the population estimate in July 2011, according to the CIA’s World Factbook (you can look it up online, it is a US government source)

 

Red – White – Swirl – Spit

Three months ago I knew nothing about wine. The white one gave me a headache. I sort of “liked” a red two-buck bottle from Trader Joe’s, named…“Merlot”. I drank beer, from time to time – mainly the commercial types. Then my life turned over again, and I was starting it anew. I moved to The Wine Country in Northern California.

If you have any ideas about the wines you like, and you know how to uncork a bottle – you know more than I did, when I stepped into my first Wine class. Everything was foreign to me. The professors were speaking a language they thought everyone understood. I did not. “Vintage” and “terroir” seemed like words for snobs. At my first class of wine tasting, I was literally sweating, thinking “what if I won’t taste what the others taste?” I felt my stupidity was over the legal limit. I glanced how others were swirling the glasses and sniffing the wine and copied them, to pretend I was educated (I looked good doing it). To my great relief, there were quite a few people in that class who felt like we were taking Greek 101.

Three months passed and I got to understand that wine is not just a luxury for snobs, not a product sold to blow people’s egos – as certain wine makers still think, but something to be enjoyed by everyone. Grapes are a commodity, same as lettuce and tomatoes. The whole industry built around wine is dedicated 100% to you, because, same as other industries, it is nothing without its customers. Wine makers are not more or less noble than film makers, shoe makers or jewelers (although many are more passionate).

Now, let’s blow off the whole mystery around those topics, and let’s talk simple about wine.

This blog is dedicated to all of you who (like me) felt clueless looking at the store shelf full of wine bottles, but had the courage to make a fool of yourself and start with a first step and a bag of questions.