I have posted these videos in the past to illustrate how professional sommeliers approach wine tasting and their ability, or lack of same, in guessing what it is they are drinking. In this example we see how three of the best can get tripped up. Notice, also, their many excuses for failure. In the end, they just didn't guess right. Is it all a guess? I think that what you see them doing is what we have come to describe as "educated guessing". There is some obvious knowledge and most of them do better at certain types of wine than others but, all around their hit record is probably not much better than chance. Additionally, keep in mind they are doing only one bottle at a time.
So, this brings me to a dinner party I cooked for last night at my friends Steve and Dion. They decided to turn the tables and conduct their own wine tasting and they upped the difficulty level by including three bottles which only had one element in common: they were all red wines. With that in mind, do you think you could guess country of origin, varietal or style, price and year? This would be a tough task for anybody. But, it would probably be impossible for a beer drinker with little to no wine tasting experience to even come close, right?
The three wines were: Chateau Tronquoy de Sainte Anne 2006 (Bordeaux France)$25, Bolla Amarone del Valpolicella Classico 2007 (Veneto, Italy)$37, Wolf Blass Shiraz 2010 (South Australia)$17. No VQA wines were in the tasting (pitty). These are 3 very distinct styles of wine with a Cabernet Sauvignon, Amarone and Shiraz that are full bodied and still fairly young by their grape standards.
We were asked to rate the wines in order of preference and the results were: Wolf Blass 5 first place votes, 2 second and 2 third; Amarone 3 first place, 2 second and 4 third; Bordeaux 1 first, 5 second and 3 third. Making the Shiraz the clear favourite of the group. As far as the rest of the guessing went, only one person managed to get all 3 vintages correct while the only one to guess a correct country and style was...wait for it...YES the beer drinker. Yours truly was given a lowly score of 0, though I did manage to convince the judges that Bordeaux is not a varietal but rather a region and I did guess it was a Cabernet. Overall, even the one guest disqualified for having insider information was unable to do better than 4 correct out of a possible 9. Points for guessing the years were not included in the overall competition but were included solely for the purposes of a tie breaker.
Generally speaking, this tasting was very well done with all wines being decanted and guests were left to take their time evaluating. I will steal this idea for later tastings but to simplify I think I will limit the tasting to one bottle and see if people can improve their guessing. I still maintain that there is more guessing than knowing going on, even amongst the pros, and yet I can't help thinking if you were to come across your favourite wine you might just be able to recognize it and walk away looking like a pro.
Wine is a complex product which is complicated by the many flavour compounds that go into it; alcohol, tannins, fruit, sugar and the vessels they are stored in all contribute to the overall taste. Add to that the changes in our mouths when we eat, drink or smoke; when we last brushed our teeth; what order we drink the different wines. Then, add the environmental factors of cooking food, perfumes of guests, pets etc. And the chances of picking out those complex flavours become slimmer and slimmer. The process was both fun and enlightening with many people surprised at the results. Conversation about the wines and the second guessing after the fact were also fun. But, knowing that PK will rub everyone's noses in his victory for the next several months might be the most enjoyable part of the whole experience.
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