One of my most anticipated times of the year is when Collier’s of Centreville holds its blind tasting class. If you’ve never partaken in a blind tasting, it goes like this:
- Someone pours you a glass of wine. The bottle is covered by a bag, so you can’t identify the wine you’re drinking by reading the label. You know the color and that’s it.
- You swirl and sniff the wine several times to get a sense of the aromas.
- You swish a small amount of wine around your mouth, trying to pick up flavors, which might be different from what you picked up on the nose.
- You make a determination of what varietal or blend the wine is based on the information and make your guess.
It’s not easy. There are tens of thousands of wines, each from different regions and made in different ways. You could taste a pinot noir from Burgundy and one from Napa side by side, and it might not seem like the same grape. There are certain base characteristics, but the flavors imparted in the winemaking process can make them quite different from each other.
If you’re an intermediate wine taster – meaning when you drink wine, you’re not just looking to enjoy an alcoholic beverage, but trying to appreciate the quality of the wine – it’s a good way to develop your palate. During Collier’s blind tasting, you’re given a sheet that lists the possible varietals you’ll taste, along with their aroma and flavor profiles. This is a help when you think you taste or smell something, but can’t quite put your finger on it.
You’ll never see a trained sommelier with one of these sheets because they’ve tasted so many times, they know exactly what they’re looking for when determining a wine’s identity. But for us civilians, the sheet helps a lot.
How do I do during these blind tastings? Meh. Usually, I can get a solid two out of eight. Sometimes the instructor will put two of the same varietals back to back to mess with your mind, but also because it’s good to have a real example of how one grape can taste vastly different when it comes from different regions and is made in different ways.
With the pandemic, Collier’s has had to really limit their in-person capacity. Classes are going on, but it’s mostly virtual. So no blind tasting class in the past year.
And that’s a bummer. I miss exercising my palate. I can do it at home, yes. But it’s a process to get someone to bag the wines, pour, etc.
I’m certainly spinning my mental wheels to think of a way I can do it more regularly at home and on a smaller scale. One thought is to mimic what they do on Somm TV’s Blind Tasting Sessions.
I’m thinking out loud here, of course. The point of this post is to say simply, if you have the opportunity to blind taste, please do it. Don’t get frustrated if you don’t guess correctly. You’re getting stronger as a taster. That’s the most important thing.
I look forward to tasting again in Collier’s, and I hope you get the opportunity soon, as well.
Cheers!