Gotta love the iPhone guys - anywhere access to QO!
2hr smash and grab of 2008 chardonnay and PN.
Some very nice examples but unfortunately mostly out of my price range (in fact all out of my price range!)
I certainly got my £30 worth. Will post some of my faves later.

One thing I can say is that after a high volume, I find it very hard to discern flavour. Mel, must take some doing when you don the press tastings

You are spitting, aren't you?

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mel

These are some of the wines that Shez has been spitting:
http://www.laywheeler.com/home/wineshop/eoi.aspx#eoi-5

If he was able to get close to the stars ? Unfortunately, none of them were ready at all - so if you are investing a large amount for pleasure as well as future income, you have to interpolate what you think they may become.

I am not trained, and I have to say now, that I would have immense difficulty in spitting some of my fave Gevrey's or Beaune's for that matter.
Because I am not trained, I would have much more difficulty in accessing a beautiful wine if I spat it out (how long do the top pro's take, to roll it around) I've seen plenty of videos of the web cam guys. I do feel that a part of my appreciation for the mouth feel and balance of a wine is immediately before it slides down my gullet, at which point, it is too late to rescue the nectar, without choking myself.

Perhaps it is me, and no training.

I think MW's who are truly able to evaluate the nuances, and incredible dimension at the pinnaccle of appreciation for the finest wines, have a special gift.

My most recent experience of such a star was 2 glasses of Carruades de Lafite 1996. Almost certainly, less than a once a year experience for me at that level. This wine had to trickle down my gullet at the finish, for me to be that zapped out by its silkyness and incredible and explosive dimension of flavour, that went on and on.

I imagine, and this is with some experience of my incompetence, that evaluation of say sub £30 upfront new world is a little less complicated, when spitting and then moving on, than it may be for a mature and top classed growth.

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Duncan

I don't think MWs have an enormous gift. They have a good sense of smell and taste, which is a bit of a gift. I don't think you could understand wine without that, but what makes them able to do what they do is study and the need to pass the bleedin exam. Pulling apart all the factors that constitute flavour and looking for clues as to variety, origin, winemaking and quality. And practice.

I take two mouthfuls (or mouthsful) of each wine I taste. Each one stays in my mouth for perhaps 5-7 seconds, but after it's been spat there's a good deal of lip smacking and assessing.

In a 100 wine tasting it isn't so much about enjoyment as just getting to the end.

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mel

I don't think you should take your skill for granted - a 100 wines, 50 wines, 25 wines, and I would run out of the door, rather than condemn a perfectly reasoable wine that I can no longer assess correctly.

Half a doizen whites and the same number of reds would be absolute tops for me, and the dozen are going to take me nearly 3 hours.

Oh yes, I know a good'un or two at one sitting, but after a while, I'm stuffed as to which of them is top. I just dont know how to clear my palate correctly between them. Further I would have to follow a style and power progression, as you do at a dinner party. I think I'm too old, and my mouth and tongue lining do not recover fast enough.

My friends believe I have great taste for wines - But only I know, how much work it really is to position them in order. Yet I will buy wines for one or two of my close friends, one says - Dunc get it if it is right. A bad one of course is a wound, but if tasting El Cheapo, the correct order of rubbishness is also very tricky.

The rule here at maison D is to drink the perceived best ones FIRST, if tasting, then I also prefer to follow the dinner party rules.

Mel - good luck, and good work for success with your exams

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Duncan

Press tastings are generally done in order of flavour intensity and alcohol, so you just start at the beginning and notice more and more. By the time you're flagging you're on 15% Aussie Shiraz and yes it often does get tiring. It do stop writing when my mouth's had enough. Or go and eat cheese and come back, refreshed.

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mel

Yes, for me it is fine with full, or oaked and ripe Chardonnay - eat cheese.

Yet, before a more fragile sauvignon blanc, and I am all over the place, with a mature cheese. The cheese and the higher acidity just seem to collide with one and another with racey SB. Or, if the cheese is french and creamy, the tropical fruit note is too heavily subdued. I prefer a demi Vouray style with cheese

Which cheese do you use for this re-lining process ?

You are gifted with a fast and accurate palate - Please believe that.

Water biscuits and room temp tap water helps me, yet the water will wash my mouth lining out too much if I keep going with the wines, so that the tongue buds also become a little raw, because I'm sucking/working too hard on the roof of my mouth.
It appears to me, a great skill to do many of these on the trot.

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Duncan

There's sometimes a mixed cheese plate available, but not always. Not blue.

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mel