OK, time for a short rant about some of the things I see when we're out tasting wine or when I'm pouring wine at Wine Xing. Most of this is common sense and none of it is life-threatening, but I swear I want to threaten the lives of some people!

First and foremost: wine tasting is a sensory activity that involves all of the senses but most of the action takes place within the olfactory system (your sense of smell). Yes that's right 70% of tasting is smelling. You smell the wine directly by sniffing from the glass and when you swallow the wine the flavors that you detect are sensed by the same receptors via your retronasal passage (the part of your sinuses that connect your nose and throat). You really only taste 5 things directly in your mouth: sweet (sugar), sour (acid), bitter (tannin and to some extent alcohol), salty (not usually associated with wine) and umami (savory, like mushrooms). All of the other interesting flavors are detected by your sense of smell.

The bottom line: don't wear perfume, oils, or cologne. I know you want to smell nice on your wine excursion but strong perfume affects other people who are tasting and nobody will be able to detect that slight whiff of cinnamon in the Pinot Noir that the tasting notes mention when all they can smell is your cologne.

Sometimes the tasting area can get crowded. The biggest problem is when people make their way to the bar and hold the bar hostage. Be polite. Get your taste of wine, ask a pertinent question or two and then move away from the bar to let others gain access. This happens more at the trade tastings that we attend and I have to be rude sometimes just to get to the spit bucket. If you really must ask 50 questions about each wine, schedule a private tasting and go for it, but when there are lots of other people trying to taste the wine move away from the bar while you assess the wine and move back in when you want another sample.

Use the spit bucket. If you are driving you want to make sure that you keep your intake to a minimum. Taste and spit. If you're not comfortable spitting directly into the bucket ask for another glass that you can use to transfer your taste to the bucket (just remember which one is which!). Dump the unused portion of your taste into the bucket, nobody will be offended. If you don't like a wine, you don't need to announce to the whole room your displeasure, just dump it out. Rinse your glass with fresh water when you move from whites to reds or from reds to sweet wines, but don't rinse between every taste. The water will have a greater impact on the next wine more than the previous wine will in most instances.

Use your Inside Voice at all times. We're all guilty of it, me most assuredly. We get a little alcohol in us and the volume goes through the roof. I see this at Wine Xing every week. People come in get a taste or two, pretty soon there are 3 or 4 conversations going in the room and if this was a venue without alcohol I would still be able to talk to someone in front of me without raising my voice. Mix in a little vino though and I need to shout at people standing 3 feet away!

The food at the tasting table isn't your lunch, it's to help you clear your palate or give you an idea of how a wine goes with food. Don't abuse it.

Don't roll into the tasting room five minutes before they close-- that's not enough time to taste anything.