Refreshing a tired palate

[kingseven]

When doing a great deal of tasting do any of you have any tips or tricks for refreshing your palate when you have a great deal of wine to taste.

Water just doesn't do it for me. What do you eat/drink/chew/swill?

[Daniel Rogov]

Best bets for me:

(a) Before the tasting and after a cup or two of espresso (not part of the process but a necessity of life for me before tastings), to chew plain, unsalted, boiled rice. Not to swallow but to chew it well and then to spit it and rinse the mouth with water. Does wonders to clean the palate of many things

(b) During the tasting, first of all of course to spit and not swallow. That for two reasons - the most obvious of which is to avoid getting rapidly blotto, the less obvious is that swallowing coats the back of the mouth and the throat with the last wine consumed and that is far more difficult to clear than the tongue and mouth itself.

© During the tasting and as the need is felt, munching on and swallowing unsalted, unsweetened bread, for me at least ideally in the form of thin slices of baguette.

(d) Once an hour to take a break from the tasting (that can be just enough time to sip a glass of water, perhaps even with a bit of refreshing lemon rind in it) and to go out-of-doors for a few minutes to take a full gulps of fresh air (don't mind the polllution, its an inescapable part of life these days). Some also consider a slice of apple as a good palate cleanser, not between wines but during breaks.