I have been to so many tastings over the years that have specific themes or everyone brings a bottle. While they are enjoyable, they provide little in the way of education. You have a certain program that the Chardonnay will taste, well like a Chardonnay. This does not always happen and if you are doing blind tastings you will be having to use more of your senses to accurately decipher what wine you are drinking.
When starting a blind tasting group here is some advice:
- Smaller group. Too many people and you lose focus. Six is a good number with six maybe seven wines.
- Mix it up. Do a price point specific grape variety. Syrah/Shiraz: 2 $20.00 bottles, 2 $50.00 bottles and 2 $100.00 bottles. Love price point events as the most expensive does not always win. Six worldwide whites. These can be really challenging as you think you will always pick out the Sauvignon Blanc but not always that easy.
- Take turns hosting. The host can put all the wines in a decanter and they will know which wine is which. The advantage of this is in brown bags sometimes will reveal a certain bottle shape and can give clues.
- Make sure you have the proper glassware. Yes this makes a difference.
The great challenge of blind tasting is trying to get more accurate at identifying specific wine regions and grape varieties. Over time you can become much more accurate and it allows for a more accurate wine of the night. Every club has the guy who always has wine of the night and this will eliminate that bias.
Reach out to me and for a small fee I can put together some really good blind tasting events for you.
Great advice John
Steven yes blind tastings are fun and humbling.
I was in a club and had the same thing happen when some goof ball always had wine of the night. We should try this.