Thursday, February 9, 2012

Is it Red or is it White?

We are about to host a tasting at which we'll see if blindfolded tasters can tell the difference between red and white wines, by smell and taste alone. Here is some background:

  1. (as reported by Molly Laas, Huffington Post) In 2001 in Bordeaux, Frederic Brochet gave 57 wine experts two glasses of wine: a red and a white (no blindfolds used). Most described the red one in “red wine” terms: jammy, red fruits. But the wines were the same white wine—one was dyed red with an odorless dye.

**If we have an expectation as to a taste, then we taste what we expect to taste.

2. (as reported in Slashfood.com) In Edinburgh, 578 wine lovers tasted a $6 wine and a $50 wine, but only 50% could pick the more-expensive wine (the same as could be achieved by guessing without even tasting the wines!)

**Price awareness makes us enjoy a more-expensive wine. [KLE: I think this is the “Celebrity Effect”]

3. (as reported by Calvin Trillin, writer at the New Yorker) Cal Davis poured red and white wines into black cups, so that the wine color could not be determined by the taster. Most of the tasters, who were enology students, failed to identify the wines’ color by smell and taste alone. The results were so embarrassing to the school that the school will not confirm that it administered the test, though one student confirmed the test occurred and said he had gotten only 3 of 7 wines correct. (And note that enology students are not necessarily skilled tasters.)

**Even skilled wine drinkers have trouble identifying a wine’s color by smell and taste alone. Other writers state that perhaps 70% of skilled tasters can identify red from white, blindfolded, IF the test is not designed to fool them.

So, in our test, let’s see if we can beat that 70% mark. I will not try to fool you.

I will blindfold you in a dark room, and pour three wines for you. You will try to identify whether each wine is white or red, then you will try to identify the grape variety, using only smell and taste. Each of these wines will be from a common or fairly-common grape variety.

***It is very important that, as the testing process is ongoing, you please DO NOT discuss the test in any detail with anyone else. Once it is complete, we will all discuss the results.

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