The levelling, or should that be the humbling, of blind tasting. Actually, no shame here, I simply (erroneously) assumed that all the wines were Burgundian!
I was just told they were 2021s, maybe with a 2020 and from village to GC level. My instant blind reactions:
1 bland nose, austere palate
2 nose only a bit better but with super middle and finishing flavour
3 similar to previous but with more intensity to the fine finish
4 paler, slightly bland perhaps as its oak is a bit more visible
5 aha – here’s the GC – the first with a quality and clarity to the nose and more depth of flavour with a superior finish
6 darker still – pungent but pyrazine green nose. In the mouth powerful, clearly the 2020 but too green for me – no!
You could say that I was surprised when the bottles were revealed as there were some wines not living up to their reputations. But mainly I was surprised because all – apart from the last – could have been 2021 burgundies!
There are 2 responses to “The blind pinot challenge!”
One of my Caltech colleagues did an experimental study – put the same wine in two tasting glasses. The blind tasters were told that one had a much lower price than the other. Most untrained wine tasters chose the higher priced glass as a better wine. And even some expert tasters did so.
Wine is such a complex drink (unlike say sake – which has complexity – but not at the same crazy level) that for most drinkers, price is often a proxy for quality. And along with price the region – especially fabled wine making regions like Burgundy, Bordeaux, Piedmont, Napa, etc.
Here is the link to that study: https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/wine-study-shows-price-influences-perception-1374
Always great fun to taste blind. I love those places that offer you an unknown glass of wine and if you get it right you get a free bottle.
Went to one recently where they even used black glasses. We could tell the wine was red and the fruit were very cooked, dried fig like, with some supporting acidity, though not much tanin, grip or followthrough. Not a wine we would drink voluntarily!
We thought something cheap from the Roussillon perhaps, but not finding anything of this sort on the wine list we opted for a Vaucluse IGP as the nearest ringer.
Well….at least we got the colour, country and vintage right! Turned out the wine was a Chateau de la Chaize, Morgon 2020!! I was quite shocked by how awful the wine tasted, when one had no preconceptions of what was served.