Blind wine tasting

A blind tasting ( tasting ) is a validation of wines, beer, mineral water, cheese and many other foods and beverages for possible "objective" quality and characteristic evaluation of the product. This is due to the elimination of other factors, such as, the knowledge of the tasters of origin, producer or the like, allows, so that these factors can not influence their judgment.

This is at all (not annullable ) subjectivity of human sensations of the nose, tongue and palate sought to bring the greatest possible degree of "objectivity" in a sensory validation. The tasting will be located only on the affected or limited to verprobenden objects and not, for example, by known or " famous names ". Only after the end of the sample is " revealed ": assigning numbers or other neutral labels created for producers. A blank must therefore be prepared; usually knows at least one person preparatory notice of the assignments. However, there are methods available that permit to take out the knowledge itself this preparatory person.

Blind samples of wine

The blank is a unique and ambitious type of wine tasting. Target a blind tasting is an objective an assessment as possible of wine based on its sensory characteristics and the awarding of points in one of the rating systems, without wishing to be influenced by names and labels.

At a blind tasting wine is served, for which no data are known - or crucial data will not be called to evaluate only the wine itself qualitatively, without knowledge of famous names, famous documents or famous winemakers, ( wherever possible ) objective which the might dim or influence evaluation process.

The preparation of a blind tasting requires a certain effort. It must afterwards be reconstructed, in what order which wines were served. So usually a person is present, the " knows " what may be a clouding of the fun.

A variant towards complete " blindness", however, is that one person out of the bottles two or more wines decanting in carafes and bottles away, then a second summoned person changes the arrangement of the carafes - or not, so for example, in two being valued wines, the exchanges carafes, or they can be the same. Then also knows the Preparatory no longer what wine he now has the right and left lens.

In blind tastings, interesting new insights and surprises, even the unpleasant kind can, namely, when tips are to make, which exact wine now in which glass insert from a known panel of wines exactly arise. This task has already seen some fail initially even some experts.

Normally, we compare in a blind tasting wines with similar characteristics, eg a wine -growing region and from one year. This is called "Blind - Horizontal ". Here 12 or 15 distinctive Bordeaux wines of the year 2000 " against each other " tasted for example. The other variant is the Château Vertical ( see Vertical (wine) ): one tests the wines of a single winery, but on different vintages of time. This is a "blind - vertical".

Trivia

In the short story "Taste " by Roald Dahl a wine connoisseur is presented, which claims to be able to specify the origin and vintage of wines alone to taste. In a pivotal bet he has, in the case of a very rare wine, to its two houses when he was in his judgment are nigh; the host must, however, in the event that the information is correct, give the man his daughter to wife. Resolution: The wine connoisseur wins the bet - at first. Then a servant brings the audience reading glasses known wine expert to give it back to the man. The ostensible wine connoisseur is unmasked as a fraud. He has secretly sneaked into the " preparation room" and viewed the bottle. He has left lying glasses next to the bottle.