exploring wine with tim fish

we have a wine group and blind taste usually weekly. We double blind taste-no specific region or type of wine is known. We do tell if it is a single or multi grape wine. Talk about humbling, but loads of fun. We are always trying to stump the others.

I find tasting blind with social wine drinkers is a great way to remove the negative preconceptions as well. Ever hear someone say "I only like _______"? I've seen many wine minds opened by way of the blind tasting.

At a recent "sommelier shoot-out" at Restaurant Daniel (http://www.winespectator.com/wwdn/show/id/45697), chef Boulut gave his top somms two wines to taste blind, and then they gave him one. Result: Boulud 1, somms 0! You just never know what will happen.

Moi? Sneaky? Never! ;-) Seriously, I'm amazed Adam still talks to me after all the horrible things I said about the wine that night. Taught me that when other winemakers are present and you're tasting blind, while it's okay to be honest, choose your words carefully!

I haven’t been a part of a wine tasting group for over a year (since I retired and moved to California), but I’ve had many a great experiences with friends and fellow wine lovers over the years. We’ve had as many as 14 California cabernets in a single blind tasting and had one tasting where the only stipulation was Washington red and one of the guys fooled us all by making his own “spaghetti red” from tomatoes. Having a few characters in your tasting group can really help the tastings remain fun and lighthearted. Sounds like Adam and Mike have discovered that too and I trust Tim has opportunity outside the “professional” environment where he can occasionally toss in a ringer or a stump and have a little fun.
As Tim stated in the article, this is a great way (and one of the most fun) to increase your knowledge and pleasure and indeed your humility. I’d add one caveat, that you should remove the foil, as we have had people identify a wine (knowing the single blind standards of main variety and region) by identifying the producers foil cap.

I’d also like to tell you about the tastings we hosted that was the most fun and the most educational and humbling.
On a few occasions we printed up maps of wine regions around the world and had at least two representatives for each variety that was in the tasting as well as two varieties that could be represented by each region: i.e. a map of Bordeaux and a map of Napa with both cabernet sauvignon and merlot in the tasting. We might also add a map of Walla Walla and add a cab-franc to complicate the decision. Doing a white wine tasting we might have a couple sauvignon blanc selections and a couple pinot gris bottles with a dry riesling and maps of several appropriate wine regions from across the globe. The individual that matched the most wines to their proper location was rewarded with something, but the real prize was the knowledge gained and the experience shared. Wine Spectators “What Am I Tasting” archives can provide the basics for getting started with something like this, but after one or two experiences, wine lovers will no doubt give it a go on their own.
The bottom line in any blind tasting venue is to have a good time . . . . So go for it!

Tim,

In your 20 years blind tasting wines, any specific blind tastings that come to mind that were surprising or shocking to you? And when you're blind tasting, how closely do you feel price of the wine correlates to your rating or opinion of the wine?

In my opinion, one of the best things about blind tastings is it takes price out of the equation. Too often people associate price with quality - blind tastings can often lead to the unexpected values of the wine world.

Thanks.

We have a wine group and do a monthly social, but competitive, blind tasting. The host picks the grape and region and cooks a meal representative of that region or that complements the grape.

Everyone brings TWO of the same bottle with a $40 per bottle limit. We blind taste each wine along with dinner, score them and debate our favorites, and then do the reveal. The person who brings the top rated wine takes home all the second bottles!

I don't think in the two years that we've done this the most expensive bottle has won more than once or twice and the least expensive has won several times.

I learned wine tasting in class from Eddie Osterland. He taught us to blind taste. My wife and I do this by me bagging them while she's out of the room, and then her pouring them. It has been very educational for us and prevents us from being swayed by price or rating.

Ron, as for Merlot, it is a difficult and expensive grape to grow well and there's still a lot of Merlot vineyards planted in unsuitable areas in California, so high scores really depend on the vintage and producer.

As for not many highly rated Cabernets, that stumps me. Cabernet, particularly Napa Cabernet, is among our favorite wines and my colleague James Laube frequently reviews Cabernets 95+ on our 100-point scale.

I own a popular franchise family restaurant that incorporates a small wine list. I have put together my own extensive wine menu requiring alot of different wines without proper storage conditions. Currently I've been storing them on their side in a closet at approx. 75 degrees and I'm starting to lose older bottles. These wines are all drinkables and some may stay with me for several years or more. What's the best way to store the wine? Would putting them in my walk-in refrigerator work better?

Ed, you face a common problem. 75 degrees is too warm for red wine, both as a serving temperature and for storage. Optimal storage temperature is 55 degrees although 60 degrees is fine as long as you're not keeping the wine for decades. Best serving temperature for reds is 65 degrees or a little less. Hope that helps.