What happens when a group of people attend a blind tasting and taste the same wine but come
up with some very different opinions on what that wine could be? A few weeks ago some of the Vinfolio wine staff and I attended an informal wine tasting where all the wines were tasted blind and we used the recommended
WSET approach to tasting.
The first 3 whites set the tone and after we started going over our general thoughts about aromas, flavors and structure some of the first responses were “wait, are we talking about the same wine”? We even had to double check the order to be sure someone didn’t switch their glasses. We were tasting a set of 3 different Chardonnays grown in different parts of the world, but one wine (
2005 Marc Colin St Aubin En Remilly 1er Cru, $33) sparked a debate because some thought it had to be New World with its toasty-oak notes and lush fruit, while others pointed to a restrained use of oak and good acidity so that it had to be from Burgundy. Could some White Burgundies taste like New World Chardonnay or vice versa?
We did have some variation in the type of glass used which can have an effect on the way the aromas are brought out but in this case it wasn’t a major factor. I think it had more to do with the individual experiences of each person at the tasting. While some had tasted more wines over many years in the wine business, others had less experience but were still able to communicate the main attributes of the wine and use that ability to accurately identify the wine.
Each person builds their olfactory memory (the ability to recognize things by their smell) and their wine palate differently. This is why it is important to taste the wine and not just drink it. Each time you taste a new wine, it is an opportunity for you to work on building your palate. If you are able to pull out a few descriptors on what you smell (fruit, flower, spice or oak), or how it feels on your tongue when you drink it (lush, acidic, tannic or sweet), just by thinking about it for a few minutes as you taste will help you remember what you did or did not like about that wine and you’ll remember it next time.
Building up your wine tasting skills is not just for figuring out what you like, but also how to identify flawed wines. How do you know when a wine is corked or flawed? Well, we had a few of those at our tasting too. Two out of our twelve wines were flawed/corked so we were in the statistical average that 10% of the wines you try may be corked. As much as we all had varying levels of ability to identify the aromas and structure of the wine, we were all pretty adept at spotting the “off” wines. You don’t have to be an expert to know when a wine has gone bad, your nose will tell you so. Think of wet cardboard, musty basements and general stinkiness that just won’t go away. The real test is the taste and when you get some very harsh effects (acidic, bitter), you know that something is wrong. If you are in a restaurant having a great meal, you certainly don’t want to drink (nor pay) for a flawed wine, and if you are unsure, you can always ask the sommelier for a second opinion.
We continued through our tasting moving to a couple of different red varietals (Grenache, Carignan and Cabernet) that proved to be hard to pin down (such as the
2003 Marti Fabra Seleccio Vinyes Velles, $18) because they showed some variations in the basic qualities we had come to expect from those varietals. We draw from our own experience but we know that other factors – climate, soil, new winemaking techniques - will make us think twice. We loved the challenge and we were surprised by an older Cabernet from Chile (
1997 Carmen Cabernet Sauvignon Gold Reserve, $60) that showed the elegance and structure of an Old World wine.
We enjoyed the wines and had some surprises, but the goal was to really work on identifying the wines properly using a structured format, past experience, newly acquired knowledge and sometimes our “gut feeling.” We started off tasting, but in the end, we drank. The best advice I ever received in all my wine tasting adventures was, “taste as much wine as you possibly can.” I try.