Standard Tasting Size

Is the standard wine tasting pour 2 ounces? For some reason that's what I've always believed, and I'm trying to find a 2 ounce pourer online but I'm having absolutely no luck.

I'm going to be assisting w/ a class in the fall where I'll be pouring, and in addition to being a pretty sloppy pourer, I'm a pretty lousy judge of volume! I always tend to pour heavy...

Any resources out there for 2 oz. pourers?

Thanks!

Is the standard wine tasting pour 2 ounces? For some reason that's what I've always believed, and I'm trying to find a 2 ounce pourer online but I'm having absolutely no luck.

I'm going to be assisting w/ a class in the fall where I'll be pouring, and in addition to being a pretty sloppy pourer, I'm a pretty lousy judge of volume! I always tend to pour heavy...

Any resources out there for 2 oz. pourers?

Thanks!

You can get those contraptions they use in bars, the ones that stop the pour with a stainless ball.

Or you could practice. I can pour more than 20 tastes from one bottle--one ounce tastes of course. I tilt the bottle, count quickly to six and stop pouring. And I use up to 5-ounce glasses; brings out the aroma better than tiny glasses.

You can get those contraptions they use in bars, the ones that stop the pour with a stainless ball.

Or you could practice. I can pour more than 20 tastes from one bottle--one ounce tastes of course. I tilt the bottle, count quickly to six and stop pouring. And I use up to 5-ounce glasses; brings out the aroma better than tiny glasses.

Thanks, Thomas. I did see quite a few 1 oz pourers, but nothing that allowed a 2 oz pour. However, considering that the class will probably have about 40 people in it, maybe the instructor is going to want a 1 oz pour anyway. It just seems like in previous classes they gave us a bit more.

The practice idea is good, too

The devices that pour a measured amount, from 1/4 to about 1 1/2 ounces, are made for spirits and can be wildly inaccurate when used for wine, usually on the high side. I like the acrylic plastic pourers from Epic products. They pour slowly enough so it is easier to judge the amount of the pour, and they don't drip. Also, a smaller glass makes pouring a small amount, say 1 ounce, easier. I like 7 1/4 ounce INAO tasting glasses for that purpose, and I believe there is an even smaller INAO tasting glass, maybe 5 ounces but am unsure on the exact size. As mentioned, practice helps.

I believe INAO (or ISO) only specifies one size, but you can get ISO shaped glasses in a range of sizes. I am the not-so-proud owner of a dozen 4oz (12cl) ISO-shaped glasses - not a mistake I would have made if I had bought them in a bricks and mortar shop!

Personally I like to fill an ISO glass to the widest point for my tasters, but I am sure that is not a standard in any way.

Is the standard wine tasting pour 2 ounces?

My understanding (which is not all too broad) is that one ounce is what most pouring folks around here (here's being Napa and Sonoma) try to achieve. Where I work, we aim for two ounces and we just eyeball it. (Management feels that using those pouring devices would make us look cheap which we really aren't.)

I personally don't go for a one ounce pour. Maybe I'm just imagining things, but I don't feel you get enough wine to make a sound sensory judgment. I hope a professional taster will jump and share her/his experiences in this department.

1 oz is actually more of the standard tasting pour and many wineries are going to 5/8 or even 1/2. 1 oz is more than enough IMO. the best measured pourers are the two ball kind - i think the company is AccuPour.

For what it's worth, Andrea [Immer] Robinson recommends a one ounce pour for comparison purposes.

A "standard" pour is whatever you wish it to be, K.

What I pour depends largely on how many wines I beleive a given taster is going to be tasting (or consuming). And how many bottles I have to go around for any given group.

For most people I feel extremely comfortable pouring an ounce to an ounce and a half, quite frankly. That gives them plenty of sensory information, without subconsciously encouraging them to consume too much to keep from stumbling away from the table afterwards.

For the "professionals", of course, I pour full glasses and encourage them to drink as much as they want---in hopes they will write their glowing reviews before the euphoria fades and the hangover kicks in.

Seriously, though, there is a psychological effect in pouring heavily. People generally get a better impression of a wine with a more generous pour in the glass. But there's really no other reason to give anyone more than an ounce or so if there's lots of wines on the table.

If you want to use pourers, that's fine. I often do. And just as often do not. What I DO use, as frequently as possible is either the little metallic discs that you curl into the mouth of the bottle, or now they have little plastic pop-top-looking thingies as well. But I use those to keep from dripping all over everything when I'm pouring hundreds of glasses quickly. Believe me, even in a small tasting, those little discies are worth it! (Especially with red wines.)

[James Roscoe]

Is the standard wine tasting pour 2 ounces?

My understanding (which is not all too broad) is that one ounce is what most pouring folks around here (here's being Napa and Sonoma) try to achieve. Where I work, we aim for two ounces and we just eyeball it. (Management feels that using those pouring devices would make us look cheap which we really aren't.)

I personally don't go for a one ounce pour. Maybe I'm just imagining things, but I don't feel you get enough wine to make a sound sensory judgment. I hope a professional taster will jump and share her/his experiences in this department.

What is enough for you Gazza? 750ml?

Is the standard wine tasting pour 2 ounces?

My understanding (which is not all too broad) is that one ounce is what most pouring folks around here (here's being Napa and Sonoma) try to achieve. Where I work, we aim for two ounces and we just eyeball it. (Management feels that using those pouring devices would make us look cheap which we really aren't.)

I personally don't go for a one ounce pour. Maybe I'm just imagining things, but I don't feel you get enough wine to make a sound sensory judgment. I hope a professional taster will jump and share her/his experiences in this department.

Gary,

One ounce is more than enough for evaluating, but there's another reason to limit the taste in a winery tasting room.

4 tastes at 2 ounces equals one glass short of half a bottle of wine; the taster does that at a few wineries and what do you think the result will be? It's good judgment to keep tastes in the tasting room below 1 ounce--we used to do 5/8 oz.

In my opinion, unless the winery's aim is to promote drinking rather than sampling, it's poor business judgment to worry that you might look cheap.

Thanks to everyone for sharing your thoughts. I guess I'll wait and see what the instructor wants me to do, and just practice eyeballing and pouring whenever I get the chance in the meantime. And I think I'll order some of those metallic discs, too.

In my opinion, unless the winery's aim is to promote drinking rather than sampling, it's poor business judgment to worry that you might look cheap.

Interesting that you bring up "poor business judgment." One of things I've oft bemoaned about Napa and something which is spreading rapidly to the other wine regions in California is the assembly-line-like experience in tasting rooms. That personal touch has faded in direct proportion to the number of wine tourists passing through the rooms. Business decisions, such as the logistics of crowd control and the quantity of wine to pour, become much more important as the business volume increases. And most places I interviewed at made the point that we were there "to sell wine." All valid considerations.

One of the reasons I chose to work where I am working is because I was told that my mission was "hospitality" and "creating a bond between the winery and the visitor." "Do this," I was told, "and the wine would sell itself." And it seems to be true when I see the volume of wine we sell on a daily basis. Part of this "sales strategy" (and that's what it ultimately is) is filling the tasting glass to a point where the average tourist feels like he or she is getting some value for those ten smackers (cheap by Napa standards) they have to shell for the experience.

So, I don't know. It would seem that in this instance the larger pour contributes to a greater ROI in the tasting room.

Is the standard wine tasting pour 2 ozs?

I guess that depends, if I’m at an event and the wines are paid for and dinner is served (usually these events charge $$$ and are “private” affairs) as pourers, are told to be generous. But usually at events open to the public we go with a 1 oz pour (I like Thomas P’s tip- count to 6).

Salute

sorry i give the wrong info earlier. the best measured pourers are the 3 ball kind from Precision Pour and they DO come in a 2 oz size as well as 14 other sizes.

sorry i give the wrong info earlier. the best measured pourers are the 3 ball kind from Precision Pour and they DO come in a 2 oz size as well as 14 other sizes.

That is exactly what I was looking for - thanks!!!

At wineries in Germany we usually tasted from little glasses that I think were a 2-oz. size. I bought a dozen of them while in Germany and use them sometimes when I give wine tastings in my home or the church parish hall. It keeps the amount of wine consumed under control until all have tasted and then I bring out standard-size wine glasses for them to go back and retry a wine that interests them with a larger pour. I don't see any of those little tasting glasses on the Internet however.

Using a tiny tasting glass won't allow thorough appreciation of the wine.

The main thing about organising a wine tasting is that you give the tasters the best shot at understanding the wines; everything else should follow. So the kind of glass is really important and the amount of wine is important.

The size of pour depends on the kind of tasting; I have a tasting group that tastes eight wines for more than an hour, and even two ounces wouldn't be enough for that kind of tasting. On the other hand the average winery tasting room would waste a ton of wine if they poured more than an ounce (or get their customers drunk, as has been pointed out).

The biggest mistake most people make in wine tasting IMO is not spitting. Gaiter and Brecher in the Wall Street Journal did a whole article about visiting wineries recently, and to my amazement they didn't even raise the question, let alone recommend spitting.

The best book on all these details is still Michael Broadbent's.

That was a surprising oversight, Oliver. They do recommend a designated driver, but not to mention spitting at all is a real mistake. Not just because of over indulgence, but also because it's very hard to taste a number of wines after you get plastered.

I've sent them a short note -- they often post at least partial retractions/explanations in their short Friday columns.

Bob,

I thought that the article was pretty good overall, though.

I like their 'don't worry about it, just enjoy it' message overall, and they're much better about the details than they used to be.

I agree, it was a pretty good approach especially for a general reader.

Oliver, did you happen to see the New York Times article on problems with wine tasting, especially on Long Island?

Feeling the sting of its own success, the nascent wine region is battling an ugly image — one pourer called the scene “slobs and snobs” — that detracts from the charm of the boutique wineries that are just over an hour’s drive from New York City. On any given Saturday, stretch limousines and tour buses jam otherwise bucolic Route 25, which snakes through sleepy towns, sprawling farmland and roadside vegetable stands.

In response to the raucous behavior, more associated with that South Fork bastion known as the Hamptons, almost all of the wineries have ended free tastings and now generally charge $5 for a flight of carefully measured samples. (Palmer is one of the few still pouring without charge, if only for selected wines.) Many tasting rooms have banned bachelorette parties and tightened cutoff policies on serving the inebriated. Raphael vineyards in Peconic has closed its tasting room on Saturdays except by appointment.

The North Fork is not the only wine-producing region in the state to have problems with rowdy tasters who arrive by limousine or bus. In New York — the nation’s third-largest producer of wine grapes, after California and Washington State, according to the United States Commerce Department — wineries in the Finger Lakes region have created the Safe Group Wine Tours Initiative. The program issues warnings to groups that are considered out of control and will bar repeat offenders, according to The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

Many wineries in the Napa Valley of California, one of the nation’s largest wine-producing areas, also have adopted a “no limos” policy.

At North Fork wineries, it is common to see security guards and employees in the parking lots turning away limos and buses. The police say they have ratcheted up checkpoints to snare drunken drivers.

And directly to your point:

The Long Island Wine Press, a local magazine, has begun printing wine tasting etiquette guidelines and rules of proper behavior, including the need to refrain from putting tips in the wine spittoon.

Do not “shout that something’s disgusting because you don’t happen to like it,” the list says, and “don’t take the three-ounce pours of wine as if they were shots.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/09/nyreg ... inery.html

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I loved this bit:

'One recent Saturday, Rob Ianne, a 22-year-old mortgage broker from Farmingdale, and five friends did the circuit in a stretch limo. “We went to Pindar and Duck Walk and two other places I can’t remember the names of,” Mr. Ianne said. “I don’t know, it’s a good time, something different to do.”'

He can't even remember their names.

That says a lot. I noticed the limos in the Finger Lakes in June and one group was a bachelorette party.

Oh boy, do I tell them that my bachelorette party was spent touring Virginia wineries?

However, we were in two Ford Explorers driven by my sister and best friend, we did not get drunk and we were very well behaved (although I doubt there was much spitting going on).

Just don't tell them that you wore a tiara!!