Verticals - Comparative Tastings or Compulsive Behaviour?

[Mahmoud Ali]

Bucket? Q'est que c'est le bucket?

Edit - just to clarify, this is an attempt at sarcasm to express dismay at hearing about spitting at a vertical, especially since we all pretty well know that Jamie's verticals are likely to involve quality, high end wines.

[Craig(NZ)]

One issue with verticals is when tasters spit all your beautiful and hard collected wine into a bucket.

Rockford SVS, Hill of Grace and many of the other treasured favourites .

I tend not to share “personally” special wines anymore - far better experiences with family and friends!

Yeah

I have done couple of verticals in my life of 10 years
I am not actually sure what the value of them is to be honest
I ended up drinking a couple of other collected verticals bottle by bottle on separate occasions
I don't collect verticals anymore, although I do have a collected 3 winery set of top vintages which I fantasise about doing one day. Not sure it will ever happen

[Mahmoud Ali]

I have done couple of verticals in my life of 10 years.

I would have guessed you were older than that. Are the drinking laws in NZ that lenient?

[Ian S]

In terms of 'pleasurable experience' I would take a random selection of wines put in a roughly sensible drinking order, rather than a vertical of a single label. For me diversity almost always delivers more enjoyment / interest.

I understand the wine enthusiast interest in verticals, and if nothing else might better impress on our minds what the 'house style' is / how the wine develops over time. As for educational, that is usually caveated when tasters start forgetting to make notes on later wines. If truly being educational about it, then spitting makes rather more sense, but it's not something I would see myself doing. I'll be on the other table, drinking an eclectic selection of wines instead.

[Wizz]

In terms of 'pleasurable experience' I would take a random selection of wines put in a roughly sensible drinking order, rather than a vertical of a single label. For me diversity almost always delivers more enjoyment / interest.

I understand the wine enthusiast interest in verticals, and if nothing else might better impress on our minds what the 'house style' is / how the wine develops over time. As for educational, that is usually caveated when tasters start forgetting to make notes on later wines. If truly being educational about it, then spitting makes rather more sense, but it's not something I would see myself doing. I'll be on the other table, drinking an eclectic selection of wines instead.

I'm aligned with every bit of this Ian, big 10+ vintage verticals are an academic exercise and best appreciated when treated that way...which includes spitting.

[paulf]

I've been lucky enough to participate in a few port verticals - mostly vintage, but also a couple of LBV verticals which were interesting and informative. But personally i'd never be in a situation where I am hosting a large vertical tasting. I'm more a small group person when socializing and I don't have enough wine geeky friends that would appreciate a large vertical and that is fine. The wines that I do have a several vintages of haven't come about because I am seeking to maintain a vertical or plan to show them as a vertical. I'd only have a couple of wines that I'd have more than 4 vintages of, and only one that I'd have say 10 or more vintages of. I've actually got a couple of beers that I tend to maintain a range of years on and I suspect I'd have more inclination to do them as a vertical than I do for wine, but I do have quite a few friends that are pretty beer geeky.

[JamieBahrain]

I auctioned off a charity Australian BBQ with a Rockford Basket press vertical in endless pours and 2 x HofG somehow thrown in . For six people $5000 AUD.

I’ll keep opening them till the guests say stop .

No spitting !

[Michael McNally]

I will be spitting while tasting the wines and then drinking them when re-visiting them during the meal.

I never see spitting as wasting wine when you are tasting multiple wines. Rather it is a way of appreciating the later wines more clearly.

And it is usually a different wine experience when you sit down with a glass and have it with food rather tha the more 'academic' assessment when tasting. It's great when you can do both.

Cheers

Michael

[Waiters Friend]

I'm a fan of verticals, and I will somewhat disagree with those who believe the exercise to be academic. Regulars on this forum may have noticed postings over the past 4 years or so which take in 10-15 vintages of a wine (e.g. Peel Estate Shiraz, a few Howard Parks, Pewsey Vale). The verticals are interesting in noting the impact of age and vintage variation on the final product. On some occasions, we have had supporting technical information on alcohol and titratable acid levels, and this information adds to the exploration of each vintage. On each occasion, it's highly interesting to discuss the aspects of the wines, and the discussions can get animated, especially where a wine doesn't follow an expected style.

Perhaps it is 'geeky', but I have enough people queuing up so that we have 10-12 people at each one. Spitting is up to the individual.

I'm hosting a twin-vertical tomorrow night of Devils Lair Margaret River Chardonnay (9 consecutive vintages) and Cabernet Sauvignon (6 vintages). I have further verticals intended for 2020. It's an interesting game, and not an exercise in tedium or repetition.

Viva la vertical

[Waiters Friend]

In addition to the above, my wine group in Perth has started to incorporate some horizontals - variety and year nominated, but region / country of origin open. These are interesting exercises also, but for different reasons - the differences that a single year and grape variety can produce are part of it. Sometimes you could nominate a region as well, and see what variation exists between producers in the same area from the same year and grape variety.

[Ozzie W]

Back in 2015 I attended a most memorable wine tasting event at Circa The Prince. On tasting was a vertical of Seppeltsfield Para Tawny vintages from 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917 and 1918. One would assume that at this age, they'd all taste the same. Couldn't be further from the truth. While there were similarities between vintages, they were all different. I will remember that tasting for the rest of my life.

[JamieBahrain]

Spitting depends greatly on the format in my experience with weekly events.

Some events, actually many, there's absolutely no-way I'd dare spit a drop. Yet the good mate next to me in the fine wine trade/ MW or other industry notable had a DRC vertical with lunch the same day. Recent Chave and Leroy vertical comes to mind. I can't afford these wines again- nor can even the wealthiest due scarcity- yet those in the top end of the trade it seems a near daily event ( and they spit ).

[odyssey]

Doing a vertical for educational purposes, to learn vintage variation, sounds great.

Doing it just for the sake of picking winners and scoring wouldn’t interest me... unless it's your absolute favorite wine or your job.

And if it was my favorite wine to be honest I'd rather spread the enjoyment out over time rather than smash it out in one night and lose all that enjoyment behind clinical criticism and palate fatigue.

To me verticals of super-premium wines are a bit of a waste of money.

For those who have plenty to waste... go right ahead!

I'd go for MJS' approach. Far better to vertical solid, good to very good wines; they'd be more representative of vintage variation anyway. For super-premiums I'd almost always prefer to have a mix of them in a night than hitting the same wine hard.

[JamieBahrain]

To me verticals of super-premium wines are a bit of a waste of money.

Why?

Forgetting money, great wine is great wine for a reason. Horizontals and verticals, it's a lot of fun. Seeing and understanding supposed lesser vintages of great wine is a revelation too. Generally countering popular thought.

Far better to vertical solid, good to very good wines; they'd be more representative of vintage variation anyway. For super-premiums I'd almost always prefer to have a mix of them in a night than hitting the same wine hard.

These are the events I tend to avoid unless a really creative and knowledgeable host. They tend to be a little dreary. Say to the good spectrum and especially New World.

[Craig(NZ)]

I have done couple of verticals in my life of 10 years.

I would have guessed you were older than that. Are the drinking laws in NZ that lenient?

excuse my poor forum grammar

[Alex F]

I love verticals but I only collect vintages sporadically in hopes of contributing to a more complete collection of wines for the purposes of doing a vertical tasting.