blind tastings
I have been hosting blind tastings and posting the results for over 20 years. Usually based on a theme, such as a specific appellation or category of wine, these are normally done behind paper bags to ensure a lack of price or label bias. Each taster brings a bottle of his or her choice to the gathering, based on the given criteria.
All bottles are bagged and labeled with a number, then poured randomly. Each wine is poured into a separate glass of the same shape and size. Tasters are asked to vote for their top four bottles, and scores for all tasters are added up for our results.
We decided to challenge the group this month with a set of three blind comparisons, with two pairs focused on location, and one...
This month was a repeat of the October 2010 tasting, highlighting the vast growing area along California’s central coast,...
It was a close fight this month. The top three wines were separated by only four points, and four different wines all received...
In a slight departure from our usual format, the August tasting was more of a cross-section of white wines from all over Spain,...
First compared in June 2007, these are an interesting change of pace for most people, having flavors and textures that are very...
What did we learn from this month’s tasting? That we’re not great at determining where in the world a Sauvignon Blanc...
In honor of Ali & Andy’s recent vacation to South Africa, we had a repeat of the May 2006 tasting — a cross section...
This was our second tasting comparing bottles of Cru Beaujolais (the first was in May 2009), but this time we focused soley on...
February’s tasting was a repeat format of last January, where we were presented with 3 pairs of wines, with each pair being...
This was only our second Rioja tasting in the many years we have been doing these (the last was in February 2007). In a rather...
We got back on track with our regular tasting format this month with the second installment of the Washington Merlot Melee (the...
Due to an unfortunate scheduling mishap, we had to skip the structured format of our regular tastings, and instead gathered for...
This was our second comparison of wines from Sicily (the first was in May 2007), and was again more of a sampler compared to the...
This was our second comparison of wines from the more southern Burgundy area called the Mâconnais (the first was in June 2009)....
As we often do in the summer, we take a month off from our regular tasting format and go over to Ali & Andy’s place...
Having last compared these in July 2011, we decided to go back for another round, but this time limiting our entries to the 2015...
The last time we tasted this category was in February 2011, so we were due for a revisit. Unfortunately, we were a bit dissapointed...
Regular readers of davidjohnhansen.com already know that we’re huge fans of the wines from Spain’s Priorat. Last compared...
While we’ve compared wines from Italy’s Piedmont before, this was the first time we focused purely on the appellation...
For the January tasting, we blind tasted three pairs of red wines, each pair separated by 10 years of age. Our job was to detect...
This was only the second time we have tasted red Zinfandels as a group (the first was in January 2006), and while the bottom bottle...
This was the second time we compared New Zealand Pinot Noirs (the first was in October 2007), and while there was one runaway...
Our third installment of the Barossa Valley Blowout was very enjoyable, with the top three wines separated by only three points,...
September was a chance to revisit the wines of Greece (the last time was in September 2012). Unfortunately, the result this time...