Things You Learn After Your First Blind Wine Tasting: A List by Terri Coad
Leaning hard into the full geekery of wine for a few hours is really fun. Let’s be honest: unless you’re out drinking or dining with fellow winos, in most other social circumstances you worry about sounding like a bit of a d-bag if you start to bang on about tannins and residual sugar too much. So having a night dedicated to wine drinking and wine talking was actually a real thrill.
It’s worth really examining what you want to get out of a blind wine tasting. Ours was set up as a competition of sorts, with the aim being to guess the variety. The benefit here is being really intentional about typicity, and hopefully cementing some of those characteristics that make up a classic Riesling or Pinot Noir, for example.
However, I think for future tastings we’ll gear it slightly differently. Whilst the competitor in me would love to keep making a contest out of things, it does lose sight a little of the ultimate Booze Hags philosophy – learning how to drink more wine that you love. Next time we’ll have a Pinot Noir night, perhaps, and blind taste our way through the breadth of what a Pinot Noir can be. The aim? To understand simply what we personally love within Pinot Noir.
Above all things, a blind wine tasting is just a bloody great excuse to get together with good people and have fun. And whilst a solo wine on the couch after a hard day’s work is pretty damn satisfying, there’s no denying that the best wine times are those that are shared. So whether it's your own blind tasting or just a catch-up at your local wine bar – do your future self a favour and pop something in the diary now.
Terri xx
What we’ve been drinking lately
2018 Unico Zelo Esoterico (Riverland, South Australia)
2018 Villa Wolf Gewürztraminer (Pfalz, Germany)
2017 Latta Vino Non Dos Pinot Noir (Coghills Creek, Victoria)
2017 Esquinas de Argento Malbec (Mendoza, Argentina)
2017 Architects Of Wine Kersbrook Nebbiolo (Adelaide Hills, South Australia)
2016 Caparzo Sangiovese (Tuscany, Italy)
What we’ve been watching/reading/listening to
Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan (Terri)
Fleabag, Season 1 (Terri)
Keen to host your own blind wine tasting night? As usual, we found Wine Folly an incredibly helpful resource for planning the night and deducing the wines during the event. Check out their guide on how to Host Your Own Blind Wine Tasting Party and download The Grid to help you taste the wine during the party.