The Wine Knows

I got some pretty good responses via email to my post last week about (not) drinking and driving. It got me to thinking about another question I get rather regularly: Do professional wine tasters get drunk during big judgings?

I have rarely seen this happen, frankly. On occasion, a rookie wine judge will not spit as much as he should and will become somewhat worthless by, oh, lunchtime.

The rest of us spit ruthlessly. You have to because you might be going through 125 to 150 wines in a day, and when you are judging a bunch of high-alcohol California Zins, Chardonnays and Syrahs, you gotta watch out.

I have been told that regardless of how much you spit, you will still absorb some alcohol through your tongue. I don't know about that. I do suspect a little wine slips through, but it's never been enough to make me feel even slightly tipsy.

Three Christmases ago, Melissa bought me one of those little breathalyzers. We've tested them in various settings, and they seem fairly accurate.

One day, the Wine Press Northwest crew was judging 75 red wines, so we tried an experiment. At the end of the judging, one of our backroom volunteers brought out some homemade beer, and we all partook small glasses. I then tried out the breathalyzer: I blew a 0.03, less than half the legal limit. I suspect that if I hadn't had the beer, I would have blown a 0.0 or 0.01.

If you are out tasting in the Willamette or Yakima valleys this weekend during their big Thanksgiving events, it's hip to spit if you want to keep yourself and others on the road safe.