DATE: Sunday, May 18, 1997                  TAG: 9705200515

SECTION: FLAVOR                  PAGE: F1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY RUTH FANTASIA, FLAVOR EDITOR 

                                            LENGTH:  210 lines

ANATOMY OF A WINE TASTING JOIN THE EXPERTS AS THEY DISSECT SOME TOP VINTAGES FROM GERMAN VINEYARDS

THEY'RE THE Siskel and Ebert of wine.

When Robert M. Parker and Pierre A. Rovani give a bottle the thumbs up, buyers around the globe begin ordering. And reaching for their checkbooks.

In 1983, Parker, owner and publisher of The Wine Advocate, wrote nice words about the '82 vintage Chateau Le Pin. At the time, a case of Le Pin sold for $200. Today - hang on to your beaujolais - a case of that same wine goes for $40,000.

Something similar happened three weeks ago when Rovani, The Wine Advocate's recently hired critic, gave a 98 plus score (out of 100) to a Verget Chabis Val Mur. Before the review, it was selling for $40 a bottle in stores. Last week the wholesale price was $100 a bottle.

We met Rovani at a recent tasting of '93-'95 German vintages held at the Four Seasons Hotel in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. Unlike the festival atmosphere of tastings open to the public, this is a serious tasting.

``Our intent at these tastings is different,'' Rovani says. ``People are depending on your opinion to make a wine purchase.''

It is an exclusive group of tasters: Rovani; Michael Franz, wine critic for The Washington Post, and Paul Lukacs, wine critic for The Washington Times. These three would sit in judgment for the afternoon.

George Winkler of The Country Vintner, a Richmond-based wine distributor, and Romaine Rice, owner of Virginia Beach's Chapin Cellars, which imports German wines, have financial stakes in the results. The rest of us are there for the enjoyment.

Rice cautions the critics before the tasting begins, saying: ``Ambience can have a lot of impact. Somehow, wines don't taste quite the same, quite so luscious on this side of the Atlantic as they do when you are sitting in the cellar with the wine maker.''

But the ambience at the Four Seasons ain't bad. We're seated around an antique carved wooden banquet table in a private dining room. Secret Service agents stroll through the gardens just outside our glass-walled room. It is said that King Hussein of Jordan is in town, visiting one of his favorite haunts.

In front of each of us are stiff white linen place mats, white linen napkins, silver utensils, a champagne flute, a water glass, 12 wine glasses and large ``dump buckets.'' A dump bucket is the wine taster's version of a spittoon. At the Four Seasons, they are silver-plated.

``No flatbread?'' asks Rovani, a bit incredulously, looking at the water crackers and other tasteless food provided.

``I'll have some made,'' says Tom Lewis, our sommelier.

A Schumann Nagler Rheingau Riesling Sekt (a the German version of champagne) is served as an aperitif. Not a wine for judging, it is poured to take the edge off.

The first flight is a selection of three reds. Germany's cold climate is not known for its reds, and the group, unimpressed, breezes through them quickly, dumping the glasses after a quick taste.

The second flight begins what has brought the judges here, German whites.

Considered by some to be as good as French wines, German white wines are usually lower in price.

The first of them are ``trocken'' or dry wines. For those who think of German wines as Blue Nun's Liebfraumilch, ``trocken'' wines are a departure. They leave your mouth feeling like the dentist has wiped it with gauze.

But Rovani hasn't gotten that far yet.

He shoves the fat, round glass up to his nose and presses it into his face so hard that the rim makes dents in his cheeks. He inhales deeply, making noises vaguely reminiscent of an obscene phone call.

It's biology, not sex.

The goal is to get as much information about the wine as possible, Rovani says. Much of our taste sensation is achieved through the nose, so you want to saturate it with the wine's bouquet.

Then there's the ``tasting,'' which is actually more like slurping. Rovani and the others don't simply pour a bit of wine past their lips. They inhale it with large amounts of air, sounding like drains sucking water into pipes.

Rovani explains this method - and madness. You suck in the air so those olfactory nerves, as well as the taste buds, can obtain infor-mation.

Then there's the swirling, the squish, squoosh, squish, squoosh of wine aficionados as they push the liquid around their mouths with all their face muscles. To make sure all the taste buds are exposed to the wine, Rovani says. And the gurgling, as each pulls yet more air into their mouths, over the wine and up the nasal passages.

Then they spit.

For that too, one must have a technique.

One taster rises out of his chair to ensure that he'll hit the bucket. Another holds his tie against his belly as he leans over the table. Yet another picks up the bucket and holds it in front of him. But the best tip: Tilt the bucket so it doesn't splash in your face.

``You spit,'' Rovani says, ``not only so you don't get drunk, although that is a very good reason, but also because there are no taste buds in your throat. Once the wine passes your nose and mouth, you get nothing else from it.''

Rovani goes through the whole process three times with almost every wine. Less only if the wine has ``corked'' or spoiled in some fashion. He is passionate about wine. How much so?

``I would beat nuns with a wooden spoon to have more of that,'' he says of a particular 1975 label.

The tasting proceeds through wines made from riesling grapes, silvaner grapes and muller thurgau grapes. There are kabinett wines, light and dry; auslase, slightly sweet; spaetlase, sweet and rich. The wines are divided into sections of ``flights'' according to grape type and style. There are 14 flights, ranging form eight wines to just one. There are 56 wines in all.

Fifty-six wines, seven tasters. Clean, fresh glasses are provided for all. All except Rovani. He only puts aside a glass if it's held spoiled wine.

``Nothing goes better with wine than wine,'' he says.

I figure at the current rate, the group is going to go through about 350 glasses this afternoon. I pull sommelier Lewis aside and suggest he quit working so hard and stop replacing my glasses. After all, I'm not a serious critic.

``Don't you worry, honey,'' he says. ``They don't pay me to polish, they pay me to put them in front of you. There's people back in the kitchen doin' the polishing.''

Sure enough.

In a later conversation, Rovani explains the importance of properly cleaned glasses.

``If you run the glasses through detergent, a film will remain on the glass altering the taste of the wine. The Four Seasons employs people to stand in the kitchen, hand-washing and polishing glasses during a tasting.''

They do an exceptional job. Every glass shines. Every glass is at room temperature when it is placed back on the table. They never run out.

They also never run out of flatbread. Lewis brings basket after basket, as the group devours it between wines. ``Look at them, they're like crack addicts,'' Rovani says. He's right. We'll all admit it.

And so it goes, hour after hour, wine after wine, slurp and spit after slurp and spit.

Wines are described as tasting like ``English lemon curd,'' ``limestone,'' ``spinach salad.''

Or having a ``KP factor.''

Not KP as in kitchen police like in military slang, but kitty pee in wine circles.

That's right.

Wines, even great ones, can have the aroma of cat urine. They are referred to as having a ``faint KP'' or ``some major KP.''

The color of the wines are also inspected. Rovani swirls his glass in the air and looks at the color against a white background. The ceiling most often, but some use the napkins, the place mats, the shirt on the person across the table, whatever is available.

One wine is particularly amber against the rest of the wines in the flight. Some express joy at the appearance and taste of this wine, but Rovani reveals his opinion later:

``There're only two reasons why you would see a wine that golden a color,'' he says. ``Either it's very old and very aged or there's something wrong with it.''

The wine is listed as a 1995 vintage.

The tasting continues with beerensauslasens, late-harvest dessert wines; and eisweins, ultra sweet wines to be savored like port or sherry. Eisweins are particularly rare because the grapes are picked after they have frozen on the vine. They are then rushed to the crusher and squeezed of their few precious drops of juice while still frozen.

The spitting has noticeably decreased. Only Rovani and The Washington Times' Lukacs are still contributing to their buckets.

``That's as it should be,'' says Rice of Chapin Cellars. At $35 for a half-bottle, these wines are some of the most expensive German vintages.

``My greatest concern,'' says Rovani, ``is wasting great wine.''

If Rovani's not wasting it, neither are hundreds of wine buyers around the globe. ILLUSTRATION: Illustrations by SAM HUNDLEY/The Virginian-Pilot

Graphic

TOP-RATED WINES AT TASTING

Here, in no particular order, are the top wines from the Four

Seasons tasting, compiled from lists by Pierre Rovani of The Wine

Advocate, Michael Franz of The Washington Post and Paul Lukacs of

The Washington Times. Prices are for 750-milliliter bottles unless

noted.

1994 Dr. Heinz Wagner (Saar) Saarburger Rausch Riesling QBA

($14).

1995 Kuhling-Gillot (Rheinhessen) Bodenheimer HeitersBrunnchen

Scheurebe Kabinett ($11).

1995 Dr. Heinz Wagner (Saar) Ockfener Bockstein Riesling Kabinett

($15).

1994 Carl Von Schubert (Saar) Maximum Grunhaus Abtsberg Riesling

Spatlese ($12, 325 milliliters).

1995 Carl Von Schubert (Saar) Maximum Grunhaus Herrenberg

Riesling Kabinett ($22).

1995 Stephen Ehlan (Mid Mosel) Erdener Treppchen Riesling

Kabinett ($14.)

1995 Johann Haart (Mid Mosel) Piesporter Goldtropfchen Riesling

Kabinett ($16).

1995 Dr. Thanisch (Mid Mosel) Berncasteler Doctor Riesling

Kabinett ($31).

1994 Ernst Popp (Franken) Ipofer-Julius-Echterberg Trocken

Sylvaner Kabinett ($20).

1995 Kuhling-Gillot (Rheinhessen) Oppenheimer Sacktraeger

Riesling Kabinett ($11).

1995 J.F. Kimich (Pfalz) Ruppertsberger Reiterpfad Halbtrocken

Riesling Kabinett ($15).

1995 H. Seebrich Rheinhessen Niersteiner Olberg Riesling Spatlese

($13).

1995 J.F. Kimich (Pfalz) Forster Ungeheuer Riesling Spatlese

($15).

1995 Willi Haag (Mid Mosel) Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Spatlese

($17).

1995 Stephen Ehlen (Mid Mosel) Erdener Treppchen Riesling

Spatlese ($17).

1995 Dr. Heinz Wagner (Saar) Saarburger Rausch Riesling Spatlese

($19).

1994 Dr. Heinz Wagner (Saar) Ockfener Bockstein Riesling Spatlese

($19).

1995 Johann Haart (Mid Mosel) Piesporter Goldtropfchen Riesling

Spatlese ($17).

1995 Fitz Ritter (Pfalz) Durkheimer Abtsfronhof Halbtrocken

Riesling Spatlese ($13).

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