I'm generally a careful-what-you-post type, but apparently not today.
I've done it. Visited a friend's B&B in Virginia's wine country for the day. Went to a couple of wine tastings (probably 10-ish wines in total) and spit. Then took a little hike, had dinner, and flew home.
Personally, I felt I was within the letter of the law because of the "consumption" word.
I also believe I was in the spirit of the law because (as the Dutch study showed) it's an outrageously small amount of EtOH that is absorbed / trickles in, and it was several hours (though not quite 8) before I flew.
I also felt I was in a reasonable place re enforcement because the people I was with knew that I wasn't drinking and could see me spitting. Even if there was a point when I could have blown 0.02, by the time I got anywhere near a plane it would have been 0.00 without question. All together, I believed these facts would weigh in my favor in front of an FAA official or administrative law judge if somehow it did come to someone's attention. I clearly wasn't "trying to see how much I could get away with" etc.
I know there's no way to know for sure what the FAA or law judge will decide (short a chief counsel letter
), but the factors above are what I weighed before deciding to taste and spit.
That being said, on the next visit I got a room at the B&B and more fully enjoyed the wine