Here at The Vines of Mendoza we taste a lot of wine blind, to pick wines for our online wine shop, our Acequia Wine Clubs as well as to educate our Private Vineyard Estate owners about different characteristics that different varietals have. While there is a lot of scepticism about blind tastings, its great to get people’s honest, gut reactions to a wine. It gives you the opportunity to taste wines in “context,” comparing and contrasting the scents, tastes and textures of one wine against others in a similar price range, the same vintage or the same region to see if there are terroir similarities, or vintage or winemaker differences.
Obviously wines are experiential and they can change depending on the food, the atmosphere and even the friends that you are with- but to get a birds eye view into a wine it is often interesting to taste it blind. You might even surprise yourself about which wines are your favorites.
So the big question- why blind tastings? You take away all your thoughts and replace them with senses. You get to know what your nose smells, your mouth tastes, and how your brain thinks. There is no right or wrong answer- all you have to do is experience.
Here are some of our tips to host your own blind tasting:
SET UP
Items needed: Wine glasses, spit bucket(s), pens, crackers to cleanse your palate, bags to cover the bottles and score sheets to rate the smell, taste, color and finish- see below.
Make sure your tasting space is well-lit to allow you to examine the color of each wine.
Use a different wine glasses for each wine. This will allow you to compare the wines against each other and revisit
each wine to see how they develop throughout the tasting.
All red wines should be open one hour prior to tasting and served at a temperature of 64 degrees F.
White wines should be served chilled at 50 degrees F.
Consider adding a selection of “sample aromas” to your tasting. It is an excellent (and fun!) way to help you search for those words that describe the aroma, bouquet and flavor of each wine. Place another set of wine glasses on the
table with a small amount of some of the following items in each glass: Grapefruit, pear, grass, vanilla, honey, cinnamon, cloves, black peppercorns, licorice, dark chocolate, coffee, strawberry,
raspberry, cherry, fruit jams, soil.
TASTING
Pour approximately one ounce (about one inch) of each wine in its respective glass (Wine 1 in Glass 1, Wine 2 in Glass
2, etc.). Try to keep some of each wine so you can re-taste each one the next day to see how the wine develops.
Follow the enclosed Wine Tasting Guide to analyze each wine and record your observations and scores on the respective
scoring sheets. Take your time and re-visit each wine throughout the tasting.






























