| What Wine Am I Drinking Event Recap |
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Brad's house in Frisco, TX was the scene for our latest wine
adventure called, "What Wine Am I Drinking". This event was
designed to be both fun and educational at the same time.
Looking back on the evening, I believe we were successful on
both accounts.
The Mission - I sent out to all of our guests, a list of nine white
wine varietal profiles and ten red wine varietal profiles. This
document listed each of the wine varietals characteristics and
their accompanying wine styles. Then in a separate email that I
sent out to everyone individually, I asked them to bring a
particular wine varietal from a particular place of origin. This
meant that each guest was only aware of the particular wine that
they brought to the event. We then proceeded to taste the wines
"blind" in wine bags to conceal their identity in two separate
flights. The first one was white, which consisted of just five wines
and the second one was red with five different wines, plus one
additional bonus wine. This meant that not every wine brought
would be in the actual tasting, but the guests did not know ahead
of time which wines were included and which ones were excluded.
Each person was to taste each wine and then go through their wine
varietal profile list to determine which wine they were drinking.
Once they had it figured it out, they wrote down their answers on a
score sheet and turned them in to me.
The Results - Well the whole thing sounds simple enough, right?
WRONG!!! This proved to be quite difficult! Of the twenty
something guests in attendance only two people were able to get a
total of five out of eleven wines correct. One being Claire and the
other, our eventual overall champion, Ann K.. Ann won in a
tiebreaker with Claire because in addition to guessing the correct
varietals, she was also able to identify more of the wine regions in
which they came from. For those of you that believed a contest
like this favored the so-called experts over the novices, guess
again. Of my attending wine staff members, the highest score was
three and that was from two of our newest members. It can be
said that sometimes in a blind tasting, your personal knowledge
and experience can work against you. Quite often people will try
to over analyze the wines instead of going with their gut instinct
and I believe a lot of that happened this time.
The White Wine Flight - In the order we tasted them in:
Sauvignon Blanc - from New Zealand
Riesling - Kabinett style from Germany
Muscat - from Texas
Viognier - from California
Chardonnay - from California
Although I did not participate in the tasting, seeing how I bagged
the wines and knew what they were, I felt like each wine was very
much true to their varietal characteristics. The only exception is
that the color of the wines was completely unexpected. For
example, the Muscat, which is normally a very clear and
transparent looking wine, turned out to be a very dark yellow and
the Chardonnay, which should have been a golden yellow, was
actually lighter and clearer than most of the other wines. Out of
the five wines, the one that people guessed correctly the most was
the Sauvignon Blanc. What really gave it away was if you went
back and tasted it again after tasting all of the others, it really had
a pungent herbal smell that is very typical of Sauvignon Blancs.
The wine that surprised me the most because people had a hard
time getting right was the Chardonnay. I thought for sure that the
buttery, oaky finish would give it away, but it stumped most
people. The most difficult wine in the line up for people to guess
right was the Viognier.
The Red Wine Flight - In the order we tasted them in:
Pinot Noir - from California
Sangiovese - A Chianti from Italy
Cabernet Sauvignon - from California
Malbec - from Argentina
Syrah/Shiraz - from Australia
Bonus wine - Tempranillo - from Spain
If people thought the white wines were difficult to peg, the red
wine flight up the anti ten fold! The wine that people guessed
correctly the most was the Syrah and that really did not surprise
me. Syrah, especially ones from Australia, are really distinct
tasting wines. The other wine that I thought people should be able
to easily guess was the Pinot Noir, seeing how it was by far the
lightest colored red and more delicate than the rest. However,
that was not the case. Think the easiest and most identifiable
wine would be the Cabernet Sauvignon? Wrong! I don't think
anyone guessed it correctly. For me personally, if I am being
totally honest, I would have been able to pick out the Pinot Noir,
Sangiovese and Syrah relatively easily, but I would have had a
tough time with the Cab and the Malbec. You could have gone
one of three ways with the Cabernet that being either, Cabernet
Sauvignon, Merlot or Cabernet Franc. The Tempranillo (bonus
wine) was very good and quite a treat to close the tasting on.
Thank you Sean for bringing it! I should point out that in the red
wine flight, the color of the wines was much more accurate than
what we witnessed in the white wine flight.
All in all, I believe everyone had fun and I actually believe we
even had one person that enjoyed the white wines for a change!
Good lord we are a bunch of red wine snobs! Thank you again
Brad for hosting such a great and wonderful event!
adventure called, "What Wine Am I Drinking". This event was
designed to be both fun and educational at the same time.
Looking back on the evening, I believe we were successful on
both accounts.
The Mission - I sent out to all of our guests, a list of nine white
wine varietal profiles and ten red wine varietal profiles. This
document listed each of the wine varietals characteristics and
their accompanying wine styles. Then in a separate email that I
sent out to everyone individually, I asked them to bring a
particular wine varietal from a particular place of origin. This
meant that each guest was only aware of the particular wine that
they brought to the event. We then proceeded to taste the wines
"blind" in wine bags to conceal their identity in two separate
flights. The first one was white, which consisted of just five wines
and the second one was red with five different wines, plus one
additional bonus wine. This meant that not every wine brought
would be in the actual tasting, but the guests did not know ahead
of time which wines were included and which ones were excluded.
Each person was to taste each wine and then go through their wine
varietal profile list to determine which wine they were drinking.
Once they had it figured it out, they wrote down their answers on a
score sheet and turned them in to me.
The Results - Well the whole thing sounds simple enough, right?
WRONG!!! This proved to be quite difficult! Of the twenty
something guests in attendance only two people were able to get a
total of five out of eleven wines correct. One being Claire and the
other, our eventual overall champion, Ann K.. Ann won in a
tiebreaker with Claire because in addition to guessing the correct
varietals, she was also able to identify more of the wine regions in
which they came from. For those of you that believed a contest
like this favored the so-called experts over the novices, guess
again. Of my attending wine staff members, the highest score was
three and that was from two of our newest members. It can be
said that sometimes in a blind tasting, your personal knowledge
and experience can work against you. Quite often people will try
to over analyze the wines instead of going with their gut instinct
and I believe a lot of that happened this time.
The White Wine Flight - In the order we tasted them in:
Sauvignon Blanc - from New Zealand
Riesling - Kabinett style from Germany
Muscat - from Texas
Viognier - from California
Chardonnay - from California
Although I did not participate in the tasting, seeing how I bagged
the wines and knew what they were, I felt like each wine was very
much true to their varietal characteristics. The only exception is
that the color of the wines was completely unexpected. For
example, the Muscat, which is normally a very clear and
transparent looking wine, turned out to be a very dark yellow and
the Chardonnay, which should have been a golden yellow, was
actually lighter and clearer than most of the other wines. Out of
the five wines, the one that people guessed correctly the most was
the Sauvignon Blanc. What really gave it away was if you went
back and tasted it again after tasting all of the others, it really had
a pungent herbal smell that is very typical of Sauvignon Blancs.
The wine that surprised me the most because people had a hard
time getting right was the Chardonnay. I thought for sure that the
buttery, oaky finish would give it away, but it stumped most
people. The most difficult wine in the line up for people to guess
right was the Viognier.
The Red Wine Flight - In the order we tasted them in:
Pinot Noir - from California
Sangiovese - A Chianti from Italy
Cabernet Sauvignon - from California
Malbec - from Argentina
Syrah/Shiraz - from Australia
Bonus wine - Tempranillo - from Spain
If people thought the white wines were difficult to peg, the red
wine flight up the anti ten fold! The wine that people guessed
correctly the most was the Syrah and that really did not surprise
me. Syrah, especially ones from Australia, are really distinct
tasting wines. The other wine that I thought people should be able
to easily guess was the Pinot Noir, seeing how it was by far the
lightest colored red and more delicate than the rest. However,
that was not the case. Think the easiest and most identifiable
wine would be the Cabernet Sauvignon? Wrong! I don't think
anyone guessed it correctly. For me personally, if I am being
totally honest, I would have been able to pick out the Pinot Noir,
Sangiovese and Syrah relatively easily, but I would have had a
tough time with the Cab and the Malbec. You could have gone
one of three ways with the Cabernet that being either, Cabernet
Sauvignon, Merlot or Cabernet Franc. The Tempranillo (bonus
wine) was very good and quite a treat to close the tasting on.
Thank you Sean for bringing it! I should point out that in the red
wine flight, the color of the wines was much more accurate than
what we witnessed in the white wine flight.
All in all, I believe everyone had fun and I actually believe we
even had one person that enjoyed the white wines for a change!
Good lord we are a bunch of red wine snobs! Thank you again
Brad for hosting such a great and wonderful event!