And you — are you better in the dark? Blind tasting, a skill that's not so common…

Blind tasting: a discipline of its own.

We would all love to be able to identify a wine blindfolded: to determine with precision its profile, that of its producer, its appellation, or even a vintage, with no prior information whatsoever! And yet, this ability is not given to everyone… Which is precisely why it fascinates!

Some of the biggest names in the world of oenology even organize blind tasting competitions. The goal? To pit the sharpest noses and palates in the French oenological circle against one another. In that regard, we warmly invite you to follow the performances of Didier Frayssou, eminent pillar of vinsetmillesimes.com and winner of the last Masters Europe blind tasting competition organized by the Revue du Vin de France)

Of course, tasting blind requires solid knowledge of wine, and in a society where 71% of people consider themselves not well-versed in wine, we wondered how many, from a heterogeneous sample of 65 respondents, would be able to distinguish a red wine from a white wine or a rosé by tasting in opaque glasses. The results are surprising, as shown in the graph below:

The Vins & Millésimes survey on blind tasting:

Indeed, in order to answer this question, we decided to conduct the test during an Oenoschool tasting session. The exercise was simple: taste 3 wines blind and be able to identify the color of each wine. Easy, you might say? At first glance, a red wine is quite different from a rosé or a white: the red will have a certain texture and tannins, the white will show citrus notes and pronounced acidity, a rosé a strong fruit intensity… But when the respondents had to choose among these three colors for each wine tasted, the task becomes considerably more tricky! Are there 3 reds, 2 reds and 1 rosé, 2 whites and 1 red, 1 of each?

The results of the study:

It is by looking at the results that one realizes that even distinguishing an oenological characteristic as "basic" as the color of a wine is no easy feat.

As proof, out of all 65 respondents, only 51% got all 3 answers correct! 21% got 2 correct answers, 23% only one, and 5% failed to identify any of the colors of the wines served (see graph above)… While red wine was the most easily identified, when it comes to rosé, it's a different story…

In total, the red wine (1^er wine) was identified by 86% of respondents. 9% took it for a rosé and 5% for a white wine.

The second wine was a white wine: a color identified by 72% of respondents. Confused with a red by 15%, and with a rosé by 11%. Finally, 2% of those surveyed abstained on that particular wine.

The third wine, finally, was a rosé. Identified correctly by only 34%. 60% took it for a white, 3% for a red, and 3% abstained.

And what about you — would you have done better?

P.S: If blind tasting and its secrets intrigue you, Oenoschool is organizing a new session on May 2, 2017!