Q&A for How to Taste Wine

It says in Method 2, Step 1: "You spit the wine into a spittoon provided on all wine-tours." Unless you want to get drunk, then do not spit the wine. Enjoy the wine in your mouth and exhale through your nose the aromas of the wine. Please do not drink and drive, choose a driver if you plan to go to a wine-tour. Relax and enjoy the flavors that come along with Red and White wines.

You spit wine mainly to avoid getting drunk. If you taste lots of varieties of wine and swallow each sip, you will get drunk. This will eventually affect your ability to taste and judge other types of wine later on in the day.

A good wine should taste balanced; one flavor shouldn't overpower the others. For example, if this is a fruity wine, you should taste a mixture of sour, sweet, earthiness, and some bitterness. It's especially important that the flavors balance each other out in white wine.

Once you spit the wine into the spittoon, it stays there until the spittoon is cleaned. The contents of the spittoon (the spit wine) are then discarded by those running the tasting session (usually waiters or bar tenders).