How to Host a Blind Tasting
Winetasting can be overwhelming. May it be varietals you don’t know, or other tasters who have more experience, but really, I think it should be fun. We do serious, professional tastings at the winery at least once a month. We might be working on the blends for our wines or comparison tastings with other wines. When I taste at home or at a party, I want it to be fun. I was once part of a fun and rambunctious tasting group in Bordeaux (14 men and myself), but that is a story for another time.
We love tasting at home with friends and family or sometimes just the two of us; my husband will often choose a bottle to have me taste blindly just for fun. Once, he took me to our favorite restaurant in Bordeaux and had a bottle of red for me to try blindly; little did I know, he had dropped off a bottle of 2010 Hafner Cabernet beforehand. Needless to say, I did not guess correctly!
We love pairing wines with food, because we think that wine is meant to be enjoyed with food. Our favorite combos are pintxos and Txakoli, pizza and Pinot, steak frites and Cabernet, oysters and sparkling wine to name a few.
When we have a tasting at home, we wrap the bottles in newspaper and label them with letters so that we can talk about them after and reference each wine. (If we’re just tasting one wine, we may serve the wine in the kitchen, hidden from the other person so we don’t have to wrap the bottle.) We then taste the wines and share our thoughts around the table.
Here’s a sneak peek of a tasting we did recently and some tips along the way – Pinot and pizza tasting!
Two Pinots from 2012, followed by two Pinots from 2014. We compared the first two and gave our opinions: thumbs up, thumbs down, thumbs to the side. Doing this ranking system makes it lighthearted and low pressure. Then, we tasted the other two. Everyone has their own opinion; my husband and I didn’t even agree. And that’s okay! That’s what makes tasting wine together so fun. Each person is right, and no one is wrong. Wine is so subjective that everyone gets their own opinions.
We’d love to hear about any tastings you have. Or better yet, send us a photo! Have any tips/tricks have for hosting a tasting? We’d love to hear. Send me an email. We always enjoy hearing what our patrons are enjoying.
