I have come to the conclusion that the opinions of wine critics/judges cannot be trusted.

The views of all those experts sipping and spitting their way through dozens of wines, writing up notes and passing on their scores and judgements should, to a degree, be ignored.

Why? Because I believe you do not truly taste a wine until you swallow it.

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Yep, Im still here.

here here, present company excluded of course

but I do agree with you GK that swallowing is important in the tasting process.
Altho taste senses are mostly in the mouth, the fact that the nasal senses play a large part too means that once in the back of your mouth and throat you experience more flavours

I'd go further -- until you've drunk the wine with a meal, had more than one glass and seen it evolve

I also think your mood, and internal balance plays a part.

I have tried wines and thought them average and then tried another bottle at a later date and thought wow!

I often wonder if your body's mineral balance and general health plays a part. A body can crave different tastes at different times, how you perceive a wine could depend on how you feel or what you happen to be lacking on that particular day.

One thing is for sure- nothing beats swallowing. That wave of flavour and aroma that rises back up the throat and invades your nasal region just as your mouth is finishing its assessment of the wines flavour. Only together do you get a true sense of the wines character.

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Yep, Im still here.

I do not recommend the following but, as I mentioned in another post. having wine go "the wrong way" and come down the nose is an explosion of flavours.

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Four wheels move the body - 2 wheels move the soul.

I've had a simlar conversation with Mel here [ a while back], pretty much the same angles were considered, but not so thoroughly - Sipping and swallowing: After the mouth cavity, tongue and gums, the liquor trickles gently past the nose passages at the back of the throat. As one swallows, saliva is generated to lubricate this passage, and as a digestive catalyst. I believe the mix of the saliva and the liquor as it goes down, changes one's perception. If it is hot - that changes almost everything about the fruit !

How she does 40 / 50 or more in a short afternoon - God Only Knows.

The wine that has most excited me, was quite recently, there is a note here - Carruades de Lafite '98 during dinner - [courtesy of a TWS member with TWS cellarage] This wine went on and on and on ..... a monumental finish in terms of length and staying power - Now .....Just how could I have experienced that - Without Swallowing

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Duncan

I guess if you are tasting so many, you don't really have much choice.

I'm sure most critics / judges would agree with us on many of the things mentioned here, but their job is to get through a shedload of wines and rate them against each other. They wouldn't be able to cover many if they had to sample it with various dishes and drink it over several days as we do.

I also agree about revisiting wines that were good / not great and then finding them awful / brilliant. It baffles me at times. I find the same with beer. I generally love extremely hoppy beers, but occasionally I can't stand them

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tribs