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Blind Tasting - At Home - 7/12/2008 2:25:27 PM

pjaines

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Do we taste wines with our eyes?

Over the last year I've done a number of semi-blind tastings with the in-laws and the results where quite interesting.

We did a champagne/sparkling wine tasting of six wines where we knew 5 of them (plus one wild-card) and got another person to pour the drinks so we didn't know which drinks we were drinking at any one time.

The drinks where:
Dom Perignon
Ruinart
2 basic champagne, Gobillard and Prevetaux (about 12 euros a bottle)
A Cremant d'Alsace - about 5 euros
An English sparkling wine (Ridgeview) - a wildcard wine that only I knew

We all tasted the wines and ordered them 1-6 in terms of preference. There were five of us and the interesting thing is that only 2 people chose the DP as their preferred wine, 1 person chose the Cremant as the best and the English sparkler came rock bottom on everyone's list. Some of us put Ruinart and DP near the bottom of the list.

I point out that the five of us tasting are all 'wine enthusiasts' and like to think we know what we are drinking.

The two basic champagnes fared very well, ending up near the top of the list each time.

Two lessons -
1. Your palate really finds it hard to distinguish between 6 sparklers in a blind tasting.
2. I bet a lot of people, if you stuck a bog standard champagne in a DP bottle would not know the difference.

We did a similar thing with an array of Bordeaux - prices ranged from 20 euros a bottle to 3 euros a bottle and it is incredible how much harder you think about a wine and its taste when you really dont know what it is you are drinking.

The lesson I took from it is that when I have guests over at my house and we are drinking sparkiling wine I serve cheap cava instead of champagne.

Anyone else tried something similiar with blind/semi-blind tastings?

_____________________________

-- Paul

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RE: Blind Tasting - At Home - 7/12/2008 2:31:19 PM

Serge Birbrair

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Paul, every Saturday one of the wine shops I patronize does "Brown Bag Tastings"
(everybody bring a bottle covered in brown bag)
Results are quite amazing.

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RE: Blind Tasting - At Home - 7/12/2008 2:36:43 PM

pjaines

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Serge,

I am not much of a champagne man so I was not so surprised that I could not really tell the difference between the cheaper and more expensive, but I was really surprised when we did a Bordeaux tasting - the fact that you have no point of reference for what you are drinking is actually quite liberating. I have a newfound respect for those lower end wines that retail for about 5 -7 pounds in the UK.

_____________________________

-- Paul

(in reply to Serge Birbrair)

Post #: 3

RE: Blind Tasting - At Home - 7/12/2008 3:33:11 PM

Serge Birbrair

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Paul, I hope you trust me when I tell you that there is no bottle of wine in the world I can not affrod and still....finding those " 5 -7 pounds " bottles is much more fun.

case and point:
I have the $350 painting at home and I have to tell all folks who see it for the first time:
"THIS IS NOT PICASSO!!!"

Few of my friends have 8 1/2" x 11" Picasso' pencil doodlings they paid over $100,000 for and they have to tell everybody:
"This is real Picasso"

Guess who feels better, me or them?
:)

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RE: Blind Tasting - At Home - 7/12/2008 3:46:47 PM

J2K

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I love doing blind tastings. I do set them up differnet ways but mostly different varietals at the same price point or same varietal at different price points.
If I choose a less expensive one, that's great. It really is educational and examines your tastes.

Once I did a blind tasting with the 2005 Two Hands Shiraz, some other Aussie Shiraz, and I threw in an $8 Yellowtail.
Me, the wife, a friend, and his girl were in for the tasting.
The men chose the Two Hands and the women chose the Yellowtail. So that's what we each drank the rest of the night. Everyone wins!!!
And the next time they come over, guess what the girls get??

(in reply to Serge Birbrair)

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RE: Blind Tasting - At Home - 7/12/2008 4:03:26 PM

pjaines

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Serge, I am completely with you on this one. There is a point on the scale where you are paying for either rarity or fashion. These f****g cult wines, and cult wine followers - they disgust me in that the price is linked only to the perceived value according to image not the actual quality of the wine. And an image that has been created by people too dumb to actually know whether they are drinking a good wine or not. All these people see is whether a wine has a "waiting list" or a "pre-waiting list" and whether it is perceived to be good.

I love my Bordeaux but you have to be one dumb ass to buy the top top stuff these days because you can buy 12 bottles of a nice 5th growth (or whatever) for the price of half a bottle of Latour. I can buy 12 bottles of Chatea Citran at 110 euros and that will give me a hell of a lot more pleasure than 1/10th of a bottle of a 1st growth.

Taste with the mouth, smell with the nose, ignore the eyes and wallet.

_____________________________

-- Paul

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RE: Blind Tasting - At Home - 7/12/2008 4:10:23 PM

pjaines

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Sorry, forgot to add onto my last post what I actually wanted to say. In terms of discovering wines, I agree Serge - that little secret $12 wine you discovered while in Tuscany or the surprising recommendation for $8 from an independent retailer is much more rewarding. I KNOW that a £300 bottle of 2nd growth Bordeaux is going to be good - everyone knows it. Where's the fun in that.

Well, apart from drinking it of course.

Remove the labels from most wines and a lot of people would be floundering.

_____________________________

-- Paul

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RE: Blind Tasting - At Home - 7/12/2008 4:15:56 PM

pjaines

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J2K - we are not getting into that 'female palate' vs 'male palate' thing are we? Could be an interesting different thread - if you read Decanter magazine there has been a bit of a theme running the last few months about male/female tastes in wine.

I actually drank some Yellowtail recently - and to be fair it is a compliment to the winemakers /wine-manufacturers of this world that they can manufacture something that is not as bad as you expect it to be.

_____________________________

-- Paul

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RE: Blind Tasting - At Home - 7/12/2008 7:13:37 PM

Serge Birbrair

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quote:

ORIGINAL: pjaines

Remove the labels from most wines and a lot of people would be floundering.

Remove the labels from ALL the wines and the MAJORITY of wine geeks who post on the wine boards, ALL wine boards, won't be able to tell you the grape the wine is made of.

I'll bet anything with anybody and any amount of money that my statement is correct.

_____________________________

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RE: Blind Tasting - At Home - 7/12/2008 8:29:40 PM

zippz

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I'm just thinking out loud.... for all i know someone has already brought up the idea...
but it occurred to me that a blind test/contest might make for a fun ice breaker,
generate some interesting findings... if not conversation... at the Seattle pow wow
...unfortunately i won't be able to make it

Maybe have people bring their fav bottle of wine in a paper bag... that way the identity of each wine is concealed and completely random? Hey even better yet... also have everyone show up with a bag over their head and then have people guess who one another is based on what they reveal in conversation. i.e. sexual innuendos & stocks = serge... 9/11 truth & taboos = me

(in reply to Serge Birbrair)

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RE: Blind Tasting - At Home - 7/12/2008 8:59:30 PM

J2K

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quote:

ORIGINAL: pjaines

J2K - we are not getting into that 'female palate' vs 'male palate' thing are we? Could be an interesting different thread - if you read Decanter magazine there has been a bit of a theme running the last few months about male/female tastes in wine.

I actually drank some Yellowtail recently - and to be fair it is a compliment to the winemakers /wine-manufacturers of this world that they can manufacture something that is not as bad as you expect it to be.

Pjaines,
No, I wasn't going for the male vs female palate (although that is what happened). I was just pointing out that there are different tastes and palates and that we chose differnet wines with big differences in prices ($45 vs.$8). But the ultimate result was that everyone was happy.

(in reply to pjaines)

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RE: Blind Tasting - At Home - 7/12/2008 11:43:37 PM

cgrimes

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Serge Birbrair

quote:

ORIGINAL: pjaines

Remove the labels from most wines and a lot of people would be floundering.

Remove the labels from ALL the wines and the MAJORITY of wine geeks who post on the wine boards, ALL wine boards, won't be able to tell you the grape the wine is made of.

I'll bet anything with anybody and any amount of money that my statement is correct.

I agree. I find blind tastings so challenging that I feel grateful just identifying the grape much less region, producer, etc.

As for price to quality, I do feel it goes up until about the $80 range then all bets are off--that is why it is still so satisfying to find the gems under $20.

(in reply to Serge Birbrair)

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RE: Blind Tasting - At Home - 7/13/2008 5:48:29 AM

pjaines

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Just to prove my point here - I have just had a Tesco's own brand Napa Valley Merlot (for those in the US Tesco's are a cross between Satan, Osama Bin Laden and Wall Mart) and my missus bought it, served it up without telling me what it was and I love it.

I find myself in a branded-supermarket-plonk-induced shame.

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RE: Blind Tasting - At Home - 7/13/2008 8:55:51 AM

Paul S

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We normally throw in a flight of blinds at most of the tastings / dinners that I go to with my friends. Very liberating indeed, espcially as the clowns in my group tend to like to throw in really expensive stuff or some real unknowns to test the rest of us and the wine itself. Sometimes real gems are thrown up.

Unfortunately, quite a few in the group have really sharp palates and extensive tasting experience, so some people are able to pin down which region, vintage and, every now and then, which producer. The guessing game is fun in itself, but I am not sure whether this is a good thing or not in the context of what we are talking about, because some of us tend to "favour" a wine we can positively identify as coming from a certain wine-maker - does that make sense?

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RE: Blind Tasting - At Home - 7/13/2008 10:44:37 AM

Colonel Lawrence

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No shame in liking an own brand from one of the wine powerhouses in the UK - yes that includes Tesco and M&S.
They will have access to the very best wines from the people they deal with, and a choice of who to deal with.
Their power even extends to forcing producers to use Stelvin type closures.
They almost certainly will test their own labels against similarly priced wines with a requirement that they win!
Good drinking.
A proud Tesco Premier Cru Champagne drinker.
L.

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RE: Blind Tasting - At Home - 7/14/2008 5:55:10 PM

rbazinet

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I really enjoy blind tastings. Firstly, I find I put a little more effort into it ... determined to get it right; assuming I even know what is being tasted. I am also fascinated with the bias introduced by “non-taste” cues when tasting non-blinded, not that they are a bad thing. Who doesn’t love it when an “unexpected” bottle cleans up in a blind tasting?

I am amazed that so little professional TNs are truly blind.

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RE: Blind Tasting - At Home - 7/15/2008 10:35:47 AM

GalvezGuy

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I love holding blind tastings at home. I especially get a little charge of putting my friends' favorite labels against what I call my QPR cuties. Probably my favorite was putting up Rockbare Chardonnay up against Cakebread Cellars, everyone greatly preferred the Rockbare (not as much oak treatment but still has a lot of the butterscotch that Cakebread drinkers love). It is a common theme though, and it is the point that I make to my friends, why pay $40 for a wine that you can't distinguish from and don't like as much as a $10 wine? I also like to do blinds to see if people can tell wines apart, most of the time they get it wrong more than right, mistaking one varietal for another.

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RE: Blind Tasting - At Home - 7/15/2008 10:09:21 PM

fingers

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Another trick, if you can get a black glass or truly blindfold the taster, is to try a white wine at red wine temperature. Most will not be able to tell that it's a white.

< Message edited by fingers -- 7/15/2008 10:12:00 PM >

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RE: Blind Tasting - At Home - 7/16/2008 2:04:25 AM

pjaines

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I can attest to the black glass thing - most bizarre. The white wine trick was quite a cool trick to play on people. I did this at some tasting event in France. There was this utter dick head there, some some know-all-"I always drink Latour at the weekend"-show-off who got utterly slaughtered and humiliated because he couldn't choose which glass was tap-water. Hilarious.

Maybe we can all save ourselves a lot of money and just all start buying branded $5 wine from now on and get someone to pop round and serve it to us blind.

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-- Paul

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RE: Blind Tasting - At Home - 7/16/2008 3:04:16 AM

Paul S

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That is hilarious. Has anyone tried a similar exercise with Charles Shaw (i.e. the "Two Buck Chuck" someone else posted about in another thread)?

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