From Baltimore to Bordeaux and Everywhere in Between: It's Best Not to Swallow

I guess I need to stop saying that nothing happens in Bordeaux on Sundays because the last three Sundays in a row I have had plenty to do.

This Sunday, there was a wine tasting event downtown and I got invited to go with Hongli, Hao Cheng and Xuen Xuen. Hunter was supposed to come, too, but he was mad at Hongli for some (probably insignificant) reason and decided to stay home. Whoa! Venturing out without my sidekick! It's like I know people here or something.

It's been awhile since I started drinking before noon on a Sunday, and knocking back 80€ bottles of red wine is a far cry from the OJ/Andre mimosas at Red Star. Maybe I should have had more for breakfast than cereal. I (don't) remember the last time I went to a wine tasting on an empty stomach... For a mere 15€, I had access to hundreds of types of wine for Bordeaux's best wineries. This could get real ugly real fast. Luckily, Hongli explained to me that we weren't supposed to actually drink the wine but instead spit it out into the little spittoons at each stand.

I have always been of the mindset that it's a bit rude not to swallow, but I guess I'd rather not be the drunk American, puking in the corner at this classy wine tasting event. We tasted probably 75 different wines from 30 or so wineries and even several different champagnes, all for about the price of a decent brunch back home. Not a bad deal! When you do the math, it's a good thing I didn't drink all the samples. Even at a generous underestimate of 1oz per pour, that's 75oz of wine. At 5oz per glass, that's 15 glasses I would have had. I'm hung over just thinking about it.

Here's what I learned about wine:

Most reds taste exactly the same to me and I much prefer white wines.
My palette is semi-sophisticated. I only liked the more expensive wine about 65% of the time. I don't care how expensive your fancy wine is, if it tastes like pennies, I'm not going to like it.
Sauternes are too sweet for me but I think my mom would love them.
Letting a wine sit for an extra year really does make a difference but it's not necessary or advisable for every single wine.
I don't know any of the words to describe my wine preferences but that's okay because all I care about is whether I like it or not.
Champagne is delicious. There's no way I was spitting any of it out. It was the end of the day and we were heading out anyway so it was okay that I got a little buzzed on champagne before we left.

Here's what I learned about life:

Being the only non-Chinese person in my group was tricky even with Hao Cheng and Hongli working hard to include me with French. Xuen Xuen doesn't speak much French at all and Hao Cheng's Chinese sommelier friend was more interested in talking about wine than talking to me. Oh well.
Doing anything with a group always takes some effort. As group size increases, the likelihood of doing things your way decreases. Everyone compromises. I would have gone for more variety, less focus. The guys, though, were definitely taking their time at each stand and hand-selecting the wineries they wanted to visit.
Although I had a good time, being a complete amateur when it comes to wine made me feel like I wasn't really getting as much out of it as pretty much everyone else there. When I talked to the friendly America woman at one stand, it really helped me understand what was going on a little better. Thanks, friendly lady!

Overall, a grand time! I am excited to do some chateaux tours when Jason gets here. There's certainly no shortage of them around here.