Wine Advice: Make learning to spit a New Year's resolution

Alcohol can dull the senses, and that's something you need to take into account the next time you're out wine touring or attending a major tasting event. After the first couple tastes, you'll begin to lose the ability to fully appreciate subsequent wines.

The solution is to first experience the appearance and nose of the wine, then swish it around in your mouth to taste the palate.

After that, spit it out.

Yes, spit it out.

You must resist your childhood teaching that spitting is impolite. Tasting wine at a winery or a wine festival are occasions when you should spit.

I learned about this during an introductory class taught by the Court of Master Sommeliers, one of the leading international organizations that trains wine experts. Their graduates - known as master sommeliers - are acknowledged as the best in the world.

THE NOSE KNOWS

The Court of Master Sommeliers teaches what they call "deductive tasting." Each element of the wine is appreciated in its own right, like a flower that gradually unfolds.

The first element is the appearance of the wine. Its color, clarity, and brightness all give clues about the type of wine and its quality.

Next, the wine should be swirled in the glass to release its bouquet. The human nose can distinguish thousands of aromas, but our taste buds only detect a handful of flavors. Thus, your nose often gives you the fullest appreciation of a wine.

In a blind tasting, master sommeliers often can deduce the type of wine and what region of the world it comes from merely by using their noses.

Once you start concentrating on the wonderful nuances of wine aromas, you'll more fully appreciate what's in your glass.

THE PALATE CONFIRMS

When you finish breathing in the aromas, take the wine into your mouth and swish it around for two or three seconds over and under your tongue. You'd be surprised how often the taste will confirm what your nose has already told you.

Save swallowing for dinner. After tasting, spit the wine into a cup.

When wine touring, my first stop each morning is a coffee shop where I enjoy a large coffee and then save the cup.

I use it as my spit cup for the rest of the day. At a tasting room, I spit each sample pour of wine into my cup after sniffing and tasting it, then empty my cup into the tasting room's dump bucket before I leave.

At the end of the day, my nose and palate still are sharp, and I can enjoy sharing a good bottle of wine with dinner. Plus, I haven't driven under the influence.

Another great benefit of spitting is that it marks you as a discerning customer and not a mere tourist. Observing that you are more sophisticated than the average visitor, the tasting room staff may offer you special tastes of reserve wines that are not on the tasting menu. You'll feel like a VIP.