Page 87 - The Hunt - Winter 2022

By RogeR MoRRis
A tastevin, or tasting cup.
Sipping Tools
M Wine memorabilia recalls rituals of creation and celebration.
aking wine and drinking wine From a barrel head, the vintner would grab flickering light to check its color and clarity have always been ritualistic a wine thief (a glass or pipette) or possibly a as the dimples in the tastevin reflected the traditions—and rituals need long-handled dipper with a tiny cup, then go liquid. Once satisfied, he’d slurp the wine
their tools and instruments. A generation or about the day’s work of monitoring how the and spit it out into a ceramic cup or onto the
two ago, a winemaker would descend into his dank, dimly lit cellar carrying a candle and a shallow metallic tastevin, perhaps wearing it on a chain around his neck and sporting a bib apron to fend off wine stains.
aging wines were progressing.
The candle would be lit, the wine
withdrawn and the sample slowly poured into the tasting receptacle. The vintner would smell the wine, then use the
dirt floor.
Somewhere in a nearby town or perhaps
at the winery’s cellar door, an oenophile would buy a bottle, take it home and lay out his panoply of wine tools—a knife to cut the
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