$10 vs. $50 Wines – Can You Blind Taste the Difference?

Blind tasting is an exercise that causes wine students to sweat but can actually be very informative for consumers. Especially if you create a “semi-blind” comparison, meaning you know something about the wines, but not which is in which glass. Some of my favorites side-by-sides are:

·      Same grape variety, two different countries

·      “Grand vin” and second label from the same producer

·      Same country or region, two different single grape varieties

·      Same variety/region, two different winemaking approaches

·      Youthful and aged versions of the same wine

·      and an inexpensive and pricy wine from the same variety and region.

In these cases, it’s not about impressing your friends by describing and identifying the wine perfectly, it’s about keeping enough elements similar so the contrasting ones are amplified and you can really tell the difference.

I recently did a pair of videos testing my own abilities to discern a ~$10 wine from a ~$50 one. With California Pinot Noir WATCH HERE, I found the lower-priced wine very earthy, elegant, and well-made. The higher-priced wine was much fruitier, and that almost led me down the wrong path! Assumptions can be brutal when blind tasting. But, in the end, its structure, intensity, and concentration tipped the scale for me.

With a pair of CA Chardonnays WATCH HERE, it was admittedly easier – the lower-priced wine was simpler, and the expensive wine had gorgeously integrated oak, a longer finish, and more intensity and complexity.

I was lucky – in both cases, the “cheap” wines were actually quite good. (If you know me at all, you know I drink well at ALL price points!)

But if you’d like to try the exercise for yourself, here are some pointers:

• Find a single-varietal wine (blends can vary widely)

• From as close to the same region as possible (my “cheap” wines were both labeled “California” while the higher-end wines had smaller regional designations; but I wasn’t doing a Pinot Noir from France vs. one from Sonoma, for example.)

• Tell the wine shop what you’re doing and ask for an inexpensive wine that really overdelivers for the price. You want to make it a LITTLE hard!

• As appropriate, when home, chill the bottles the same way for the same time

• Remove the capsules if possible and open the bottles without looking at the corks

• Put the bottles in blind tasting bags, or wrap with aluminum foil (Better still, have someone who’s not tasting bag and open the bottles!)

• Mark with wine glass pens which glass is wine 1 and which is wine 2

• Let your white wines warm up a bit before tasting

• Have a process of evaluating the wines (see below)

• Taste, and draw conclusions

• Reveal!

Now, here’s the core of this whole exercise – HOW do you actually tell the difference blind? Going just on vibes can often fall flat, and how do you separate out your personal preference from what are legitimate quality markers?

When I studied for the WSET Diploma, I learned about BLIC. This stands for Balance, Length, Intensity, Complexity. If you give a “point” for each element the wine expresses, you can justify calling a wine Outstanding, Good, Acceptable, or Poor. Meaning, four points – it hits all the markers – it’s an outstanding wine, even if you wouldn’t want to drink it. Only one point? A poor wine, even if it’s right up your alley. (Don’t judge yourself if this happens btw.)

When I joined the MW program, that BLIC exploded and became FBLIICCWATTEDX.

(Finesse, Balance, Length, Intensity, Integration, Complexity, Concentration, Winemaking, Age-ability, Texture, Typicity, Evolution, Drinkability, X-Factor.) You don’t need to search for all of these things – they were just extra elements I would note so I could argue a wine’s quality level appropriately for that exam! But I want you to understand that professional tasters have familiarized themselves with many potential nuances of wine.

(One side note on Concentration – many tasters starting out are confused by this element. It is a way to describe a wine that feels tightly coiled and ready to spring, that has a core intensity. Versus a wine that comes across as a little loosey-goosey, a little all over the place.)

Pull out some of the above that make sense to you, and evaluate each wine as to whether it expresses none, a little, or a lot. Your tick marks should tell you which is the pricier wine.

Now, whether you think the expensive wine is BETTER is a whole ‘nother story!

Let me know if you try a blind or semi-blind comparison, and what the experience was like for you. I can’t wait to hear.

Cheers.