Comments on: Party Games

By: Jerry D. Murray

Jerry D. Murray — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 01:59:55 +0000

Arthur,

Blind tasting certainly has its limitations and as Morton says above, some degree of context must be known to the taster even when tasting blind. In terms of reviewing wines, I think blind is essential to credability. Being honest about a wine, and fair, requires no biases based on preexisting opinion.
Mydailywine, I think a big part of the problem you talk about has nothing to do with tasting blind but tasting wine after wine after wine. One can take time with each wine and still not know what the wine is.

By: mydailywine

mydailywine — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 07:43:12 +0000

I agree with you about blind tasting but for slightly different reasons.
I have judged at a few wine shows and sat at tables with very seasoned palates.
What happens during a wine tasting session is inevitable ( which is how we end up with all of these big broozers with high scores). After a certain amount of wines have been tasted, the palate is dulled and only wines with big fruit and alcohol stands out noticeably.
Subtle, austere wines lose out in this scenario every time.
If the wine reviewer could see which region and which year certain wines came from then the wine might get a different reaction, based on context.
So maybe we are saying the same thing, context matters.

By: Morton Leslie

Morton Leslie — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:29:07 +0000

The wine world might be a better place if we just tasted wine anyway we want to taste wine…and then kept our mouths shut. It’s not so bad that we tell everyone our opinions, it’s that some people actually listen to us. When a critic begins to make recommendations on the basis of who made the wine or who owns the winery which occurs more often than anyone will admit, then the idea of blind tasting is appealing.

In every blind tasting you need some minimal context. It’s reasonable to know what region or what variety or what wine type, but when the information is “who” we run into trouble.

I taste one bottle a day, never blind, but with a fairly open mind since the purpose of the tasting is to decide if I am going to drink that bottle with dinner. I see no need to talk about it unless my wife asks me my opinion.