"Water? Never touch the stuff..."

Sage advice from W.C. Fields! And when it comes to wine tasting, water, must be approached carefully. The only time I suggest that water is used while wine tasting is between tastes as a thirst quencher. Always in a separate glass.

Being a wine evangelist is a lonely burden. Just yesterday, while helping out at a local winery during the Annual Barrel Tour, I soon gave up "preaching" not to rinse with water before I poured a taste of wine for the participants. This illustrates the power of suggestion among the inexperienced wine tasters. They have seen someone rinse and think that is what they are supposed to do. Now I don't think they are stupid, rather they have not been gently guided away from the practice. They wrongly think that they are purifying their glass for the next taste. What they are doing is introducing several negative elements into the tasting experience. First, water has it's own taste. Some more noticeable than others. The whole goal of wine tasting is really wine sniffing. And if you're sniffing anything but the wine then you are going to confuse your olfactory. Second, even a drip or two of water will dilute the wine. Unlike beer, water, is not an ingredient of wine.

So if you insist on rinsing, use a splash of the next wine. Often, a professional will "prime" the glass with the wine they are about to taste. Even the glass itself may have off-odors from cleaning, etc. The only time you really need to do this is if you are returning to whites after tasting reds. Best chase is to use two distinct, made for that wine, glasses.

The savvy taster will carry their own bottled water, as it is important to keep hydrated during the "grueling" effort of wine tasting!