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

Blind tasting: a particular discipline.

We would all like to be able to recognize a wine blindfolded: to be able to determine with precision its profile, that of its producer, its appellation or even a vintage without any prior indication! However, this ability is not given to everyone… And that is precisely why it fascinates!

Some great names in the world of oenology even organize blind tasting competitions. The goal? To pit the sharpest noses/palates of the French oenological circle against each other. In this regard, we strongly invite you to follow the performances of Didier Frayssou, eminent pillar of vinsetmillesimes.com and winner of the last European Masters of blind tasting of the Revue du Vin de France)

Of course, tasting blindly requires solid wine knowledge, and in a society where 71% of people believe they do not know much about wine, we wondered how many, from a heterogeneous sample of 65 respondents, would be able to distinguish a red wine from a white wine from a rosé wine by tasting in opaque glasses. And the results are surprising, as shown in the graph below:

The Vins & Millésimes survey on blind tasting:

Indeed, to answer this question, we had fun doing the test during an Oenoschool tasting. The activity was simple: taste 3 wines blindly and be able to give the color of each wine. Easy, you might say? At first glance, a red wine is quite different from a rosé or white: the red will have a certain texture and tannins, the white citrus notes and sustained acidity, a rosé a strong intensity of fruit... But if the people surveyed had to choose between these three colors for each wine tasted, the task becomes seriously more delicate! Are there 3 red wines, 2 reds and 1 rosé, 2 whites and 1 red, 1 of each?

The results of the study:

It is by observing the results that one then realizes that even distinguishing an oenological characteristic as "basic" as the color of a wine is not obvious.

As proof, of the entire 65 people surveyed, only 51% of them got 3 correct answers! 21% got 2 correct answers, 23% only one, and 5% did not distinguish any of the colors of the wines served (see graph above)… While red wine was the one most easily identified, for rosé wine, it's another story…

In total, the red wine (1^st 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 the people surveyed. Confused with red by 15%, and with rosé by 11%. Finally, 2% of respondents abstained on this wine.

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

And you then, 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!