Layne’s Wine Gig Presents
BLIND TASTING
By Layne V. Witherell
For those of you not in the know. A blind tasting is where the identity of the wine you are tasting is completely concealed. Even the cork is hidden from view. As such, you get to figure out what is in your glass and where it’s from. This age-old happening can occur in a variety of contexts:
THE PARTY WITH FRIENDS…
Hey, let’s get together and bring some wine over and try to guess what they are. No harm, no foul. Some of the guests know alot and some don’t. It can be a sloshing good time.
“THE AGONY OF DEFEAT” TASTING…
You have just shelled out around $150,000 and ten years of your young life to pass the Master Sommelier test, hopefully leading to a glamorous wine career, with the last exam part being a blind tasting set to a timer with each wine. The classic book taking a deep dive into the genre is Bianca Bosker’s “Cork Dork,” where she shadows a group of aspiring candidates in their quest. Among her observations:
“Facing down a flight of six wines was like being caught on a booze treadmill set to Usain Bolt.”
“Morgan, as many of the other sommeliers I would come to know, was not without a sense of irony… a sycophant sponging off the rich and powerful hawking wines for their price as much as their quality.”
“If you know the language you can decipher the code.”
Your excellent language guidebook is “The Food Lover’s Guide to Wine” by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg. Read and taste, read and taste.
Such is the life of the sommelier (both aspiring and actual). Now let’s put all of us to the test with my three blind tasting examples. They average around $25 a bottle retail, because $10 won’t show you much in character and $100 is just a waste of money for this little exercise.
These are three real blind tasting examples.
1. SYROCCO SYRAH, 2018, MOROCCO, $25.00.
French winemaker Alain Graillot was bicycling near Rabat, Morocco and set his eyes on some interesting older Syrah vines. He joined forces with the Domaine des Ouled Thaleb winery to make this glorious ringer wine. Cool label, huh? This is you tooling through the countryside.
Sommeliers are trained to take things apart in their minds when tasting. Syrah is dark in color as your first hint. It is both full bodied and dry with rich flavors of leather and spices plus herbs. Australian Shiraz (same grape) is hot, alcoholic, on the sweet side, and easy to pick out. French Syrahs like Cornas and Cote Rotie are both great but out of our price range. Classic French Sirah tastes of olives and meat. California and Washington State are somewhere in between with a tad lower alcohol. There is French oak used here indicating high European quality.
CONCLUSION
Clearly a party wine as the aspiring sommelier candidate would roll out of their chair and onto the floor upon learning of its Moroccan origin. Even though they pegged it as Mediterranean, that wasn’t close enough for the judges. You must take the test again and chuck in yet more money. It is, however, a remarkable party wine to have alongside the Moroccan meatballs and a side of cous cous. This is a ringer’s ringer, and a delicious one at that.
2. CHATEAU PEGAU “LONE” COTES- DU- RHONE BLANC, 2023, $25.00
Only five percent of Rhone wines are white, the rest are red or rose. That’s the bad news. The worse news is the grape blend hodge podge: 40% Clairette, 30% Bourboulenc, 20% Grenache Blanc, 10% Ugni Blanc. You have just entered the valley of the unknown.
The good news is that they are around in the market, and you can easily look for them. For the blind tasting sommelier, this is the kind of wine that they live for. It isn’t often seen but once enjoyed it can be recorded in their piles of tasting notes and mentally tucked away for future reference.
It is full bodied with light fruit, a waxy character, a touch of white flowers, and is the perfect aperitif wine. The best news of all is that Chateau Pegau with their 100 acres of old vines and a long presence in the American market is popular. You have probably had it and enjoyed it. It stands alone.
CONCLUSION
This wine will work equally well at your blind tasting party as well as the big sommelier test. At your wine reveal party, it can become an “Ahhh” moment and serve as a delicious aperitif. For the big sommelier test it can get all those memory receptors firing alongside the wine analytics parts of taste buds and brain to nail it. Remember, white Cotes-Du-Rhone’s are usually young. So, 2023 is your best guess.
3. BIRICHINO SCYLLA, 2020, CALIFORNIA RED WINE, $23.99
A blend of 85% Grenache and 17% Carignane.
Our first wine was based on knowing the grape (sorry about the ringer location), with the second based on knowing the style of the wine from a well-known place- an easier pick. Our third blind taste is based solely on knowing the peculiar and downright fascinating style of winery.
Once you have had a Birichino wine it is forever etched in your memory. Their quest is for ancient undiscovered vineyards throughout California. The plantings of some varieties are older than the equivalent grapes in Europe.
Back in the olden times in California (the 1980’s) there was an infusion of new money. It was brought both by international companies and self-made fat cats who planted the two fashionable grapes de jour: Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. Oh, those little darlings.
Along comes the “lifelong liberal arts major” Randall Grahm, using Alan and Ruthies bucks (a.k.a. mom and dad) to start his idiosyncratic Bonny Doone Winery in Santa Cruz, California. When his own vineyard goes “blotto,” he turns to George Besson’s ancient, circa 1910 plantings of the totally unfashionable Grenache grape. The rest is history: the birth of The Rhone Rangers. Together with a flair for gonzo labels, while using grapes like Grenache and Carignane, he creates his own take on the classic Rhone wines of France.
Side Note…
John Locke, co-owner of Birichino, was Bonny Doone’s Creative Director/ Assistant Winemaker for decades. He not only absorbed the unique style of working in minimal winemaking (no new oak lipstick allowed) but mastered flavors that are both elegant and rustic at the same time, using natural yeast, no filtration and neutral French oak barrels. Randall Grahm’s book “Been Doon So Long” is dedicated to “John Locke”. And I thought it was the 17th century philosopher, being a perpetual liberal arts major and all.
CONCLUSION
Every sommelier in training or getting test-ready needs a Birichino in their life. This is simply the wine world evolving from industrial through its hipster phase and way beyond. It is an affordable version of the next big thing in California wine: the quest for flavors of ancient vines in overlooked places.
There is a text, “The New California Wine” by Jon Bonne. Read it, you Sommeliers, and you will ace the next exam.
As to the party people, just sit back and say, “Wow! We just had a Moroccan Syrah, a White Cotes-Du-Rhone, and a fabulous new wave ancient vine treat from California. What fun!”
LAYNE’S WINE GIGS
Pick the topic and the place, and I will conduct Wine Gigs for groups, both large and small. For event thoughts, e-mail me at lvwitherell@gmail.com.
