The “Five S’s” of wine tasting
‘Fess up, folks: you watch NBC‘s In Wine Country with Mary Babbitt on Sunday nights, don’t you?
OK, much like many of you, I find my weekend time to be precious; therefore I don’t always watch the show. And, being that the show only airs in the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Dallas, Washington DC, Miami, Philadelphia, and Hartford, CT, chances are that you’ve never even heard of the show. But if you had, you may have been aware that In Wine Country has been honored with a James Beard Award for Best Local Food Show.*
One of the regular segments of the show is an audience teaser, often a question that serves to further viewers’ wine knowledge. In last night’s show, Mary mixed it up a little from the typical multiple-choice format, this time asking the open-ended question, “Do you know what the Five S’s of Wine Tasting are?”
As the show broke to commercial, I mentally jotted down “Swirl, Sniff, Sip, Savor, and Swallow.”
And I was wrong! Well, at least partially wrong, in that I had four of them correct. According to Ms. Babbitt and the In Wine Country folks, the Five S’s are “See, Swirl, Smell, Sip, and Savor.”
She’s right, of course. One must also see the wine to get a sense of its clarity, liveliness of color, even its potential age. Swallowing, on the other hand, is not included in the Five S’s for a very good reason: to swallow every wine one tastes cannot necessarily be regarded as good policy. Indeed, a sixth “S” might be “spit” – a practice which I’ve always maintained is a perfectly acceptable thing to do when tasting wines, no matter how many or how few.
While the spit bucket always remains empty at the mid-week tastings I host, I admit that tasting only six bottles’ worth between six people, in addition to the Joy Factor, can often preclude spitting. But being on a weeknight, it’s also rare that any one bottle at my tastings goes empty; most folks want a clear head for the following day’s work efforts. So though we swallow, we just don’t swallow very much. (I expect to regret this statement, however.)
Nevertheless, if you’re going to drive a car and/or going to attend a massive tasting such as the ZAP Festival in San Francisco later this month like I’ll be doing, then spitting the wine after noting each of the other five S’s is the proper thing to do. That, and eating a lot of food – something there’s always plenty of at the popular ZAP tastings.
Being that I’ll be spitting lots of Zinfandel on the 27th, being that others will too, and in the absence of protective plastic sheeting a la Gallagher’s Sledge-O-Matic, I’ll be wearing my best purple shirt. And I’ll swallow after I arrive safely home.
*Please see It feels like Spring for this Winehiker for a follow-up to this post.
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January 15th, 2007 15:27
The Five Ss of wine tasting…
Do you spit, or do you swallow? How to know when to decide….
January 15th, 2007 18:02
Spit when you’re at a tasting with many wines (ESPECIALLY Zinfandel) so that you can actually remember tasting them. And so you can make it home.
January 15th, 2007 19:18
I suppose that’s an advantage of living outside the city. When I pour at a big tasting, I drive to the venue early, get set up, drive back to the hotel, and take a cab back to the venue. While it is still a good survival idea to spit, somewhere after 40 monster reds it no longer seems to make any difference… and sometimes, there is something so yummy in your glass that just cannot be dumped without committing a crime against humanity…!
January 15th, 2007 18:21
You definitely got the gist of it there, Farley…
January 15th, 2007 19:25
…and El Jefe’s is the other gist!
January 15th, 2007 22:00
Hey, thanks for watching “In Wine Country”. In reference to your wine hikes, maybe “Stride” could be the 7th “s”. I see that you are going to do a winehike at Picchetti. We featured the winery a few years ago, and Leslie the owner is really great. You should have a wonderful day. Recently my family and I tried geocaching for the first time at the open space behind Picchetti. The kids loved it, and we ended the day with the adults having a few glasses of wine.
January 16th, 2007 09:21
Mary, I’m delighted that you chimed in. I’ve always enjoyed Picchetti’s Zinfandel Trail, and have led more hikes there over the years than anywhere else “in wine country”. The trail offers so much representative diversity of Santa Cruz Mountain plant life with its mix of chaparral, grassland, and bay/oak woodland, plus there’s that delicious reward at the end of the trail. The trailside seasonal pond is definitely a fun discovery zone for kids.
I like your suggestion for the 7th “S”! But golly, after the first seven S’s, I’m thinking that an eighth “S” could be “sack out”!
December 13th, 2007 16:11
[...] The “Five S’s” of wine tasting It feels like Spring for this Winehiker You’ll know it’s true when you see it on TV In winehiking country: the NBC-TV interview You can be healthwise AND decadent in the California wine country [...]
April 11th, 2008 13:02
the most important letter in wine isnt S…but R…for REPEAT!
February 23rd, 2009 19:00
[...] The Five S’s of wine tasting It feels like Spring for this Winehiker You’ll know it’s true when you see it on TV In winehiking country: the NBC-TV interview [...]
February 24th, 2009 00:05
[...] See how it all got started. [...]
March 10th, 2009 17:13
[...] *See my previous post about Mary Babbitt and her In Wine Country show. [...]
March 17th, 2009 13:53
[...] The “Five S’s” of wine tasting Long day. Longer night. [...]
December 6th, 2009 17:58
These are some great tips to remember when you are wine tasting. I always make sure to swirl, sniff and definitely swallow only to get the true taste, of course.