My Two Most Memorable Blind Wine Tastings

Last week’s blog covered the basics of blind wine tastings, and how to plan and host your own. This week, I’ll share my two most memorable blind wine tasting experiences over the years and the results of those tastings (spoiler alert - one I passed with an A+, the other I failed with an F)!  

I absolutely love the challenge of a good blind wine tasting. They present an intellectual exercise that requires me to focus all of my skills and knowledge of wines built up over the years to discern subtle differences of the wines in the glass. I always feel a good deal of pressure when tasting wines blind – there are usually people watching and judging my performance. And even if those watching and “judging” are my friends or family, I still want to guess correctly – my pride demands it!

I’ve participated in quite a few blind tastings over the years, but two stand out from the rest. One was my favorite blind wine tasting, and the other was my least favorite. They were both incredibly challenging, but in very different ways. And the outcomes of the two tastings were vastly different – I nailed one and crashed and burned on the other. Here’s the story of these two blind tastings!

The first was years ago at a Virginia winery located in northern Virgina at the base of the blue ridge mountains. The winery was RdV winery, one of the best wineries in Virginia. RdV specializes in Bordeaux-style wines, meaning red wine blends made from a combination of five different varieties – Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and Malbec. RdV makes only two wines – a Left Bank style Bordeaux wine called Lost Mountain (which is primarily Cabernet Sauvignon-driven), and a Right Bank style Bordeaux wine called Rendezvous (which is primarily Merlot-driven).

The price for each of the RdV wines runs around $150 per bottle these days, one of the most expensive Virginia wines available. But they are worth it, and have received rave reviews from Robert Parker, Wine Spectator, and Food and Wine Magazine.

They offer a blind tasting for visitors, along with a more traditional tasting. The blind tasting included four wines – a Bordeaux wine from France, a Bordeaux blend wine from Napa Valley, and RdV’s two Bordeaux blend wines. Guess which ones are the French, Napa Valley, and RdV wines correctly and you win a bottle of wine – count me in!

They poured the wines, provided us with a nice charcuterie platter, and left Laurie and I to enjoy our tasting in private. I tasted each of the wines, and immediately identified what I thought were the French Bordeaux and the Napa Valley Bordeaux Blend (A Caymus Red Blend). One was quite earthy in character, with strong tobacco notes and leathery scents on the nose – classic characteristics of French Bordeaux. The other was more fruit forward, with scents and tastes of lush dark fruit like blackberries and black cherries, and light earthy notes on the nose. The fruit-forward nature of this wine convinced me it was the Napa Valley Bordeaux Blend.

Next, I retasted the two I thought were the RdV wines. The were very similar in style and really differed only in the “softness” of the wine, the intensity of the fruit, and the tannin levels. Based on those characteristics, I determined the softer style wine was the RdV right bank Bordeaux blend (due to the fact that Merlot is a lighter style wine than Cabernet Sauvignon and also is generally less tannic as well). When our host came back in, she asked me to provide her with my guesses, and was surprised when I included by guesses for the two RdV wines as well (to win the bottle of wine, I apparently only had to guess which two were the RdV wines, and not which one was the left bank, and which one was the right bank wine). Turns out I guessed all four correctly, which she noted rarely happened in her experience. I nailed the tasting and that bottle of Lost Mountain wine we drank that weekend was fantastic!

RdV Vineyards in Delaplane, VA

Unfortunately, my latest blind wine tasting didn’t go as well! Cooper’s Hawk Winery and Restaurant is a Chicago-based restaurant chain that showcases upscale but casual modern American food, as well as an extensive list of wines they produce and bottle themselves using the Cooper’s Hawk label. In addition to a long list of wines available year-round, they also produce a new wine each month as well as special bottlings throughout the year. In all, they offer 55 different wines ranging from sparkling, to white, to rose, to red, to sweet wines, to fruit-based wines.

They have a wine tasting bar that I visit each month to taste the new offerings. Last month, they offered a blind wine tasting for the first time – four wines, two white and two red, tasted in pairs side-by-side – again, game on! But given the vast number of white and red still wines on their list (11 whites and 16 reds), I asked what the theme of the tasting was, assuming they would neck down the number of wines from which to choose – no such luck! Which means this was going to be an incredibly challenging (and likely impossible) blind tasting. I asked the host how many people had guessed the four wines correctly, and she quickly responded, “None”. Not a surprise, but still, I was ready!

The first was the paired white tasting. One of the wines was clearly a Sauvignon Blanc – I noted the grassy taste and nose, as well as the presence of grapefruit and citrus in the mouth. The second was a sweeter wine with a bit of residual sugar, which meant it was either their Moscato or Gewurztraminer. No way to tell which one as they both taste similar, so I guessed Moscato. The result? Wrong on both counts, or so the host said! Turns out the sweeter wine was the Gewurztraminer (OK, 50/50 chance there), and the first wine was a White Meritage Blend made up of 85% Sauvignon Blanc and 15% Semillon. When she told me this, I responded by saying, “Well, OK, I guessed Sauvignon Blanc, so I pretty much got that right, right?” She said sorry, you have to guess the specific wine correctly. I called a foul, as I’m sure that even a master sommelier would likely not be able to identify the small amount of Semillon in that wine. But it was time to move on to the reds!

The red wine tasting was more difficult. With 16 potential wines to choose from (and some of them blends like a Zinfandel/Cabernet Sauvignon blend for example), I was expecting the tasting to showcase varieties that have specific and unique characteristics to help the taster neck down the options from 16 to just a few – again, no such luck. I guessed that the first red was a Zinfandel due to the spice and bright red fruit flavors, and the second was a Super Tuscan due to the high tannins and cherry fruit. Wrong on both counts again - sort of!

The first was the Zinfandel/Cabernet Sauvignon blend I mentioned earlier, and the second was a Shiraz from Australia, with was also tannic and showed a similar fruit profile to the Super Tuscan. And no, I didn’t get partial credit for guessing Zinfandel for a wine that was a Zinfandel blend. This tasting was rigged, and ridiculous, and the host agreed with me! Anyway, 0-4 and a massive fail!

I left the tasting with head held high, knowing that no one had guessed all the wines correctly (or perhaps any of them!). I drowned my sorrows at the bar with a nice Chardonnay along with a burger and fries – delicious!!

Cooper’s Hawk Winery and Restaurant

So, now that you have heard my blind tasting stories, how about yours? Have you ever participated in a blind wine tasting and if so, how did it go?