Don't be the 'Wanker' at the Wine tasting

Or as you (if you are the one) may have heard a little later during a tasting event 'oh come on you bloody wanker, fair go' . For our USA friends it would translate to 'oh come on you dam douche let someone else have a go'.
Recently we had a couple of back to back large tasting events that were very good other than there were some that needed a refresher on manners. What makes this worse is that these events were filled with primarily industry and media types with some experienced punters mixed in to the crowd. In other words, people that really should know better!

While at these larger type events there are a lot of stations pouring, there are also a lot of tasters. So while a little waiting is to be expected, standing behind some wanker who is wind bagging their knowledge or opinion to the poor trapped individual who is pouring, is not what most are there for. Especially the pourers. Even more especially us! Well it is mostly about us...

Go ahead and ask a pertinent question or two about the winery, or the wine, but don't engage in the spewing of dribble about the history of the bung hole, or the story of some great wine tasted at some magical event that was way better than this (because self-importance is endearing). No one cares to hear that, and those waiting behind you are plotting your demise, Ya bloody raw prawn!
 

So the message here is keep your inane stories to yourself and be considerate of those around you, get your taste and some info from the pourer, ask a quick question and step aside ya ponce!

Another pet peeve is, and this is a bit of a organizer issue as well, is the bloody lamas who reach in around you and spit in the bucket. Now we know that spitting is an accepted and somewhat required practice at these events, but be a little couth about it and stop it ya bloody drongo's.

Some of you are not that good at it either, and crickey does the little missus spit the dummy when we come home with wine stains on our crotches. Organizers need to double or even triple spit buckets and not just in front of those pouring, but away from the wine station so that the spitter can get their wine ask a question and move away, access the wine and then safely spit it out. As an added suggestion make the tables with the spit buckets taller as well. This one change to the regular system would help with a number of issues.

While there are a few more things that we find annoying, sharing these two has made us feel better. So enough belly aching and being grumpy (he hates when we imitate him) and on to more great wine adventures!

Happy Wine Adventures,

Cheers,

WineWalkabout