Blind Tasting - More Like Blind Guesswork

Even the great Jancis Robinson gets it wrong when presented with wine that is to be blind tasted.

Armed with a set of preconceptions, it is too easy to be trapped into thinking what a wine is, when it is actually something completely different. In the attached article, the famed wine writer Jancis Robinson completely mistakes a Riesling for a Chardonnay. Normally, these two grape varieties produce such utterly different types of flavour and taste profiles that it would be impossible to mistake them. The taster will be expecting certain characteristics to help them ascertain the wine. But, when presented with a situation where your mind is pre-programmed to expect something else, all the normal rules are thrown out of the window: https://www.ft.com/content/2efc6f73-4d97-4027-9a8e-0c2e4332cce8

So, the moral of the story is, trust yourself. Trust the back catalog of flavour and taste profiles that have been built up over your tasting experience and back your own judgment. Don't be fooled by tricks such as decanting wines into different bottles. Learn how to taste with a black glass. This is a glass that is literally made of completely black glass. The only giveaway you might get from a black glass is if the wine is sparkling or not. The bubbles say so much. Everything else is disguised. It is impossible to tell the colour and therefore the potential age of the wine. Our most important sense will be our saviour. The sense of smell. Our olfactory system is truly something to behold and in the natural world an absolute lifesaver. Taste and sight help to reinforce what the nose brings to the party.

#wine #winetasting #nose #blindtasting