Blind Tasting: A Lesson In Humility

Last night, our local wine merchant held a "brown bag tasting." He put out four whites and six reds well disguised in brown bags and asked us to identify the wines.

Oh, boy ....

Well, I got all four whites almost instaneously, but failed miserably on the reds, only getting one right!! 5 out of 10 was my total score.

There were about 50-60 folks doing the same and the best score of the night was 6 out of 10, but, geez, Louise, I really need to go back and get some practice!!

[David M. Bueker]

So what were the wines (and what were your guesses)?

So what were the wines (and what were your guesses)?

You really want me to pay for my sins!!

I don't have them all because they collected the sheets and the answer key, but I do recall that the first four were Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, and Viognier. The last two were real curve balls because they were both heavily oaked, but the floral nature of the Viognier gave it away.

Out of the six reds, I correctly identified the Pinot Noir. I'll need to spin by there today if I have time and see if I can recover my documentation.

[Jenise]

You remind me that we did a blind guessing-game tasting for one of our neighborhood tastings wherein you had to guess not the grape, but which wine on the list was which. I missed two, reversing (understandably, I still insist) a lighter Sonoma cab and a heavily oaked Napa merlot. But what I remember most was this one twit who insisted loudly that she "won" because she claimed to have only gotten one wrong where a few of us got two and most did less well than that--all in even numbers, of course, since there were an even number of wines. "No, sweetie," I remember telling her, "there were an even number of wines (ten) so if you thought wine A was wine F, then you got wine F wrong, too. Two wrong." Nope, only one, she said. Argh.

But it can be humbling and I agree, it's harder among reds.

But it can be humbling and I agree, it's harder among reds.

From your mouth to Bacchus' ear! They didn't even let us know which wines were coming under consideration. They threw in a Charbono which threw everyone.

But all was not for naught. If you guessed three correctly, they gave you a coupon for 20% off your next purchase.

Every blind tasting I've ever tried has been an exercise in humility!

I agree, pretty much every blind tasting is an exercise in humility. When I went for my first Sommelier seminar, of the 22 wines (at least I think there were 22), I only got 10 right....less than half.......... Some of the things that you take as markers, or so you thought were markers, are not that evident when blind.... still lots of fun.