Edmunds St. John recommendations

Oh, that's just so crass... ( )

Ain't that the truth. The font size wasn't nearly big enough. Try this:

BUY EDMUNDS ST JOHN WINE IMMEDIATELY!!!

I'm getting the strangest desire to buy some Edmunds St John wine right away!

I propose that the subject wines be presented in random order with varietal, producer, and vintage made known to tasters before the blind tasting begins. No notes allowed. The blind tasting would then consist of a flight of seven wines, of the same varietal, and similar region (e.g. Bordeaux) from different producers. Vintage should be within a few years of each other, but does not necessarily have to be exactly the same. The tasters would be asked to identify the producer of the wines.

The second blind flight would be a single varietal, from the same producer, but from different vintages. The tasters would be asked to identify the vintage of each wine. The seven wines should be chosen from a span of 15 sequential vintage years. In other words, no 1947 Las Cases up in the same flight as a 2005 Las Cases. The third blind flight would then be seven different red varietals. No blends allowed. The tasters would be asked to identify the varietal.
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I don't think that my SOBER group would be interested (we're more into tasting good wines), but I could probably get some folks interested. But "neither favoring or fooling" would be inherently tough. Hard not to do one or the other. What is fairness, choosing radically different producers, or is that favoring? Isn't picking similar producers an attempt at fooling tasters? As to varietal wines, you'd have to do multiple producers (I know of no one who makes 7 different reds, though there might be one) so there's a variable. Even vintages- say we did do Bordeaux. Do you include super weak vintages? Would be favoring tasters. Anyway, if anyone wants to organize in metro area, I'd be game. I've made enough bad guesses at blind tasting to have nothing to lose.

[David M. Bueker]

I know of no one who makes 7 different reds, though there might be one

Horton from Virginia. Unfortunately they suck.

I bet there are some Cali wineries that come close with Cab, Merlot, Zin, Petite, Syrah, Pinot and maybe something else.

Anyway, if anyone wants to organize in metro area, I'd be game. I've made enough bad guesses at blind tasting to have nothing to lose.

Dale,

I would be happy to develop a formal protocol that would be relatively simple to implement, and would be glad to discuss logistics issues with you. I can also create a data collection spreadsheet and complete the data analysis myself. If you can find tasters in your area who are game we can protect their identity if that is concern. I am interested in the statistical outcome, not in embarrassing anyone. Also, I would be happy to have my hypothesis proven wrong.

Let me know and I can forward a draft proposal.

[David M. Bueker]

Sam - I would be game to try as well.

sounds good. Happy to organize. Happy to be public, though could do anonymous if majority prefers. More when not on netbook!

Dale,

I will write up a draft protocol for review. I will post it in a separate thread for comment.