WTN: Dirty Tricks

[David M. Bueker]

2010 Château de Pibarnon Bandol - France, Provence, Bandol (3/13/2019)
I played a dirty trick on my blind tasting group with this wine. About 3 hours prior to the tasting, I decanted two halves of the magnum into two identical decanters, and placed them side-by-side in the same flight. The comments were all over the place. Some said - same wine, different vintages - "wine two is clearly older", "wine one is much more tannic", while others thought same producer, two different vineyards. I was having a very hard time keeping a straight face.

Overall the wine showed very well, with some brooding black fruit, loamy earth tones, herbal elements, and just a hint of funk. Moderate tannins in balance with the fruit, so good aging potential, but not so harsh as to preclude pleasure now. I really enjoyed drinking it.

The comments were all over the place. Some said - same wine, different vintages - "wine two is clearly older", "wine one is much more tannic", while others thought same producer, two different vineyards. I was having a very hard time keeping a straight face.

Yes, that does seem like quite the trick!

But, presumably you don't think your tasting group colleagues were 'incorrectly' diagnosing the wine in their glasses? I would say it just shows how wines can show very differently from glass to glass. And why it takes so much drinking to get an 'accurate' read!

[David M. Bueker]

No, I thought they were doing very well. They were trying to spot a difference, and it caused them to explore possibilities.

I have done something like this in the past, lotsa fun!