This piece, today, reminded me of a comment made by the late great British wine writer, Harry Waugh when asked if he ever confused Burgundy with Bordeaux, his reply was ‘not since lunch’!
I have been enjoying your weekly submissions to Napa Valley Features.. keep 'em coming!
As a wine writer, grape grower and winemaker (in Napa Valley), I wanted to add a few comments to your observations about wine judging.
1. No two bottles are the same. (And if they are -- what a coincidence!) I have spent my wine life judging wines (my own and others) and rarely do two bottles with the same label from the same production run taste DNA-identical. Don't ask why. It;'s just what is, is.
2. One of my pet peeves in group tastings is this: before tasters assemble, wine prep people pour glasses from bottles as they walk around the room. I have even seen this done at the venerated CIA -- half the room will get wine from one bottle... and tasters' glasses in the other half of the room are filled with the same labeled wine -- but from a different bottle. Once the blind tasting commences, I have seen such commotion in the room. Half the room will give the wine a high core (poured from one bottle), while the other half of the room, tasting from a second bottle, gives the wine a thumbs' down.
How can you have a meaningful group appreciation of a wine when what has been tasted has come from DIFFERENT bottles? The real confusion arises when two tasters get into a dust-up about a particular wine... not realizing that even though they are seated immediately next to each other, their wines were poured from different bottles of the same-labeled wine.
I so enjoyed this article! Friends have given me strange looks when I swirl my wine glass to coat as much as possible to minimize any detergent odors left after washing. This technique usually works.
This piece, today, reminded me of a comment made by the late great British wine writer, Harry Waugh when asked if he ever confused Burgundy with Bordeaux, his reply was ‘not since lunch’!
Dan!
I have been enjoying your weekly submissions to Napa Valley Features.. keep 'em coming!
As a wine writer, grape grower and winemaker (in Napa Valley), I wanted to add a few comments to your observations about wine judging.
1. No two bottles are the same. (And if they are -- what a coincidence!) I have spent my wine life judging wines (my own and others) and rarely do two bottles with the same label from the same production run taste DNA-identical. Don't ask why. It;'s just what is, is.
2. One of my pet peeves in group tastings is this: before tasters assemble, wine prep people pour glasses from bottles as they walk around the room. I have even seen this done at the venerated CIA -- half the room will get wine from one bottle... and tasters' glasses in the other half of the room are filled with the same labeled wine -- but from a different bottle. Once the blind tasting commences, I have seen such commotion in the room. Half the room will give the wine a high core (poured from one bottle), while the other half of the room, tasting from a second bottle, gives the wine a thumbs' down.
How can you have a meaningful group appreciation of a wine when what has been tasted has come from DIFFERENT bottles? The real confusion arises when two tasters get into a dust-up about a particular wine... not realizing that even though they are seated immediately next to each other, their wines were poured from different bottles of the same-labeled wine.
I so enjoyed this article! Friends have given me strange looks when I swirl my wine glass to coat as much as possible to minimize any detergent odors left after washing. This technique usually works.