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Wine Blog from The International Wine of the Month Club

A wine blog written by the experts from The International Wine of the Month Club

How to Setup Your Own Blind Tasting

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Blind wine tastings should be simple – those tasting should not know the identity of the wines being tasted.  When it comes down to blind taste testing for wine, there are 8 basic rules to always remember.

Rules for Blind Wine Tastings

  1. 6-12 people is the best for wine tasting. This way you only need one bottle per wine.
  2. Arrange the wine tasting so they are trying whites to red. From sweet to dry – light-bodied to full-bodied.
  3. Ask your guests not to wear perfumes or smoke.
  4. Bag or cover the bottles so they cannot be seen.
  5. Prepare a tasting note guide and answer sheet for your guests.
  6. Make sure you have crackers and a cheese platter, or some type of finger food.
  7. Supply plenty of water to drink between tastings.
  8. Use wine glasses, not paper or plastic.

Now you’ll have to decide what kind of blind tasting you would like to do. A Single-blind wine tasting is one varietal ie: Merlot, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir.  The bottle should be covered, but you can see the wine in your glass.

A Double-blind wine tasting is where your guests will not know anything about the wine and they have to list its Varietal, Country and sometimes region.

And yes, there’s even a Triple-blind tasting where your guests are actually blind-folded and know absolutely nothing about the wine.

This will help you get started along hosting your own blind tasting party at home with friends and loved ones, but the most important rule not to forget is to just have fun!

Not All Wines Are Created Equal

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Anyone who has known me for awhile knows my mantra: “You can’t drink a label or a price tag, or anyone else’s palate.”  And I do hold these truths to be self-evident to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, our nation’s first devotee of wine.  Although it should be evident that not everyone shares the same taste in wine (and the same can be said for food, art, or almost anything else for that matter), this realization doesn’t negate the quality factor in wine.  Not all wines are created equal.  And I do believe they are not.

Some wines are endowed with greater body and balance, not to mention longevity and what the French refer to as a certain je ne sais quoi.  Some are made from mature vines, grown under perfect or near perfect conditions, expertly pruned, hand harvested, and their wines crafted by men and women who understand art as well as science.  Other wines spring from less favorable terroir, while still others are mass produced in an industrial mode and hardly receive the care and attention required to make the highest quality wine.  It’s fine to drink such wines, if you enjoy them, but just as there is great, aged beef and then there is tough or overly fatty disappointing beef, the same spectrum of quality exists among wines.  And we are not talking about preferring one cut of beef to another or having a preference for apples over pears.  There is such a thing as good beef and bad beef, better quality apples and lesser quality apples, and most people can tell the difference when presented with the choice.  In fact, the majority of the population could be professional wine or food tasters, given the desire, experience, and money to pursue such an avocation.  Only about 20% of the adult population is estimated to suffer from serious palate or olfactory deficiency that precludes them from fully appreciating various scents and flavors in food and wine.  All others are capable of considerable discernment.  Yet, one person may prefer filet mignon and another hamburger.  Who is to say one is better than another?  Such a choice is truly a matter of preference and experience, not quality.  The question of quality arises when the talk turns to good hamburger as opposed to bad hamburger, good Cabernet versus bad Cabernet, and the spectrum of quality that lay in between.

So in short, it’s good to like what you like, but sample as many wines as you can, and then ask yourself two questions.  What is quality? And what is preference?

 

A Votre Santé!

Don

A Barrel and Wine Marriage

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I decided to try out a new Chardonnay tonight and I noticed some nice smokey, vanilla notes which caught my curiosity as to what type of barrel they could’ve used to age this wine.  You can find a ton of wines aged in an American Oak, French Oak, or even Stainless Steel Barrel and they could all bring about different notes in your wine.  The type of barrel a winery decides to use will basically intensify or subdue various flavors and ultimately bring about a more complex product.

I’ve been drinking wine for some years now, but feel my palate still doesn’t have a firm hold on this whole barrel thing, so how about you – have you ever been able to tell the difference in your wine?  Do you have a preference?  I know mine, it’s French Oak, just like the one used to age this lovely Chardonnay.

 

 

 

 

The International Wine of the Month Club

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