Bill Loftin wrote:

>
> Mark, one of the aspects of tasting that we all consider is how long the
> taste is on the palate. Can you experience that without swallowing? That
> to me is on the back of the palate and only comes with swallowing.

Bill,
I think that you're talking about judging the finish of a wine. To
me, that is all about retronasal olfaction, so simply swishing the wine
in your mouth and fully aerating it give me a good sense of the finish.
I can't say that I've felt any better informed about the finish when I'm
not spitting vs. when I am.

On a vaguely related note, I think that one of the major flaws in many
people's sipping technique is taking too large a sip to judge a wine. I
find that a comparatively small amount of wine in the mouth, thoroughly
agitated and aerated, provides me with the best sense of what the wine
is like. And, as I mentioned before, I usually take more than one sip
of a given wine to judge it. Pros like M. Pronay are usually much
quicker, as they've had so much more practice in both sipping and
spitting (I feel like such a newbie when spitting during barrel tastings
-- the pros send out the wine in a high velocity stream, whereas I'm
mainly trying not to dribble it on my shirt front! :P)

Mark Lipton