The blind leading the blind

I ran a blind tasting at work earlier this week. There were 2 whites and 7 reds, despite it being summer, because I like reds. To help add to the fun, I asked people to match up the wines with the varietal and also to the region, both of which I had shuffled. But the kicker was I said I'd waive the tasting fee if anybody got them all correct. Most people didn't even consider this a possibility but there were a few who hoped they might live up to the challenge, such as Andre.

I've been to a few blind tastings before and they are very hard, actually well nigh impossible. So I tried to reduce the impossibility factor by choosing distinctly different varietals (chardonnay, riesling, tempranillo, merlot, shiraz/cab, syrah, zinfandel, GSM rhone, and pinot noir). I also didn't distinguish too much among regions: Spain, France, Napa/Sonoma, Monterery, etc.

The wines were all in paper bags (from Trader Joe's since they're one of the few places that still uses wine bags). As Andre walked in, he noticed me still uncorking and bagging some of the wines and said "You know we'll be able to get a lot of information from the corks." I calmly replied "Yes, I know, that's why I've shuffled the corks, because there's people like you I have to worry about." We both laughed and chatted some more. As I kept repeating "I tried not to make it too hard", a small part of me worried that several people might guess them all.

The result: it was a slaughter: wines 89, tasters 0. Two people got roughly 2/3 of the varietals and regions right, but nobody else was close. The stories are legion of how poorly people pick out wines blind and this tasting confirmed it. At the very least, I figured people could tell a riesling apart from a big, ripe Chardonnay (Kendall Jackson Monterey Reserve). But many said they got this wrong. One person thought the Riesling was the chardonnay, until they tasted the actual chardonnay and realized their mistake. And in perhaps the worst display of tasting skill of the year, "Mary" who had seen the Seghesio being uncorked thought all the red wines were the Seghesio.

And the sad part was I wasn't even close. You see I had to assign the wines in a hurry, to finalize the print out before the event. I was struggling with Google Spreadsheets, as I wanted to reorder one particular column (the varietals) so it would no longer be aligned with the rest of wine information in the print out where people guessed. But let's just say I was having problems, despite my closeness to this product. So I didn't really remember what I had assigned. I finally got to the tasting room late so I was fully focused on just getting the right wine uncorked and bagged (and the corks swapped) and not paying attention to which wine was which. During the tasting, I found the red wines were all big, rich and fruity and tasting well. I found myself liking E and was surprised it was the Seghesio 2005 Zin, just confirming my Seghesio Curse. I also quite liked J (Columbia Crest 2004 Merlot Grand Estates) which is excellent news given its $8 price. Wine "C" (right after the whites, which was a mistake) was big, alcoholic and a bit closed. Even the Cote du Rhone (Perrin & Fil Cote du Rhone Reserve at $7) as big an fruity, with a hint of mineral.

I also listed tasting notes from the critics, mostly Wine Spectator and Robert Parker, just to see if people could see what the critics were talking about. I think people had a lot of enjoyment on this. At one point Brett asked if wine J (Columbia Crest Merlot) was the wine "Bursting with blueberry and currant fruit,...". After I confirmed this, he excitedly said, "Yes! I can so taste the blueberries in there".

Another person "Joe" at the serious tasting table was proud that he picked out the Merlot. I said that was impressive as Merlot tastes so different from across the world and I was happy he had found a new wine he liked. Andre opined that a Pomerel Merlot would taste quite different. But then "Joe" said "Actually, I don't like Merlot and I didn't like wine J so I figured it must be the merlot". This reaffirms the point that you can reliably pick out what you don't like. (At a previous hard tasting at the Wine Club, my wife somewhat confidently picked out the Chilean wine (2002 Don Melchor Cab) as she just does not like wines from Chile. I was hopelessly clueless at this tasting going 0 for 10.)

The highlights for me were

1. People had a good time. Sometimes this happens and other times it doesn't.
2. The wines tasted very good. Sometimes this happens and other times it doesn't. At the end my favorite was the Neyers Syrah, which finally opened up to be a big rich dark smokey coffee tinged beast. (Tanzer gave it 93, WS gave it 87. I'd give it a 93, too).
   
3. Many people discovered they liked varietals they didn't think they liked. The best occurred when these wines were inexpensive and widely available. My favorite example was Eva who swore she didn't like Chardonnay, but she liked wine "B", which is a big ripe, fruity, chardonnay. Go figure.