For a society who grows up being programmed of the revulsions of spitting in public and the subsequent banishment from cultured civilization thereafter; getting used to the idea of spitting wine into a bucket in front of sane adults can be a little unnerving. Ironically, spitting is not only accepted in this forum, but rather, it is the preferred thing to do.

We are all intimidated by this fairly ludicrous act the first time we witness it or are expected to do it. I mean, no one wants to look like a drooling fool in front of their peers right? For me, what will always be indelibly printed in my mind is a vision I had at my first public wine tasting in Atlanta, Georgia many years ago. A finely dressed and stately female octogenarian hoisted back her oceans worth of pearls which cleared the way for the ensuing stream of wine spit headed to a tiny little bucket more than a foot away - and did so with deadly accuracy. I believe this laser beam could have hit a bull's eye from 20 feet. Both astonished and speechless, I figured if this upper class, fine citizen could perform this act without public admonishment, then surely, it would be okay for a rookie like me.

In truth, these events are called wine tastings for a reason. If you drink all the 1.5 ounce pours they give you, you won't taste much in a very short time; which of course; may be the least of your problems. I took a friend recently to a great tasting of about 80 spanish wines and explained the spitting process to him and why we do it. He ignored me. He's a big guy so this didn't show up right away, but later in the evening as he was trying to wipe something off his face, he realized it was the floor.

Our tongues have taste zones. The tip of your tongue for instance, only tastes sweetness. So, it stands to reason that if you take just the tiniest sip of a dry wine (meaning a wine with the absence of sweetness) all you will taste is bitterness. To taste a wine properly - whether or not you swallow it - you must take in enough wine to cover all parts of your tongue. Hold it there for at least a second or two (longer if you don't feel silly) then either spit or swallow. By the way, it is a fallacy to think that you need to swallow the wine to fully taste it. All you have to do is follow the afore-mention rule of "tongue".

If you wonder why people even try to smell and taste different components of wine, you're not alone. Think of it this way; as children, I believe probably the most underdeveloped sense we have is our olfactory awareness. Yet, it remains the most powerful in terms of memory. I have two fairly young children that I teach this to all the time. My oldest child can be blindfolded and smell at least 10 - 15 different herbs or spices very accurately. He's also learning to cook with me and can add things to a dish from his memory of the scents. My youngest son, who has a keen sense of smell, once told me as he was passing through the room several feet away from me that my wine smelled like "Grandma's jam". His Grandmother only uses strawberry jam on her toast, and sure enough, amazingly, that was what the wine smelled like.

In short, smelling and tasting wine heightens our sensorial awareness and I believe ultimately, enhances our experiences in life in general. Certainly this is true with food. Food will always taste better if you give it some thought and appreciate the ingredients and effort that went into the preparation of the meal.

Also, the best way to enhance your enjoyment of wine is to taste it in a focused environment like a formal (or informal) wine tasting. Here, you can taste indiscriminantly among a group of people and make your own silent judgements about what you like and dislike in a wine. It's also a great place to speak to those in the trade that knows a lot about wine and can help direct you to things you might enjoy that might otherwise remain undiscovered.

So the next time you're at one of these events, swirl, sniff, take in the wine, hold it in your mouth for a few seconds, hoist the bucket and let it fly! It won't take long before this nonsensical act becomes all natural.