What is the proper way to taste wines?
Spittoons and properly placed buckets are used in tastings. If you are tasting different wines, it is perfectly OK to spit out the wine after you finish tasting it. It is also OK to drink the wine when there aren’t many wines being served. Just be careful not to get drunk. Friends gathering to try out a number of wines is a good way to learn about wine. Dumping the glass eventually is a good idea just to avoid getting drunk, which will prevent you from learning anything at all. The really serious can also get into blind tastings where the participants do not want to be influenced by the label and the perception of the brand. The best reason for tasting wine under blinded conditions is so that the tasters can judge the wine on its own merits, uninfluenced by any prejudices or expectations. Blind tastings often yield surprising results, such as when an obscure wine is strongly preferred by the tasters over top brand expensive wines that are also in the tasting.
