I’m doing a blind tasting of 12 varietals for friends. None know a lot about wine. I will assign one bottle to each of 12 couples. He’s what I’ve got in mind:
I’ve got 3 more to assign. Was thinking that it’d be nice to settle in Cali and French wines.
What else would you suggest? Zin? Cali Merlot?
Thanks for the suggestions.
Sounds like a fun event. Not sure what the purpose is, but if it were more for exposure then I would stick to 3 or 4 bottle of the same type. That way your friends can compare and contrast how vast wine can be. Maybe something along these lines, 4 Cabs one each from say Napa, Bdx, Super Tuscan and Washington…
Champagne, CA sparkler, Champagne.
Just don’t leak info ahead of the tasting! 
BORDEAUX!!!
Then maybe Champagne and Chablis.
Left bank bdx since u have Cali cab
A rioja since it uses American oak
A super Tuscan to throw a wrench in things.
If your friends don’t know much about wine, this tasting will confuse the snot out of them. I’ve been there. Which is fine in my book, unless they are smart and truly interested in learning about all those different regions, varieties, etc. Personally, I would organize them as 4 blind varieties and you could let them taste one of each first. Once they get going, it’s just gonna turn into a party anyway.
Does this mean that each couple will taste from only one bottle, and not taste from any of the other eleven bottles?
Or did you mean to write one GLASS per couple, and the husband & wife would drink from the same glass?
If the people don’t know wine, don’t assign any to procure bottles. You pick and the group shares the cost. You are infinitely more apt to choose representative wines and not crazy clunkers.
Next, taste blind for them for label, but discuss the grapes openly and their characteristics.
This sounds like a tasting you should lead as a journey of discovery.
Also, you are looking at one ounce pours. Perhaps six wines, two bottles each?
Why blind if they don’t know about wine and if you’re going to have different varieties? Blind is good if you’re having same vintage, same grapes, etc., to compare, but here there are both reds and whites and they’re from all over - there are way too many variables to accomplish much by having them blind if nobody knows what they are anyway.
If you stick to the idea of comparing France and CA though, you could do half dozen of each country Merlot/Cabs or something along those lines.
Or if it’s to introduce them, guide them through the tasting non-blind, pointing out characteristics of the grapes/wines.
I would do 6 pairs of wines. Each a different varietal but from two distinct locations.
I agree with the chorus. It can be an interesting parlor game to guess what on earth type of wine this is in my glass, but I think everyone will learn more and have a more interesting experience if you arranged some flights that had some kind of similarity, especially since you’re doing as many as 12 bottles.
E.g. three 2014 syrahs from different places in the world, three of the same bottle of red Burgundy from three different vintages, three 2013 Sonoma pinots from producers that have different ripeness/oak styles, 2009 cabernets from Bordeaux, Napa and Washington of roughly similar price, things like that.
That’s the best way to learn about wine, to try them in groupings with some theme running through the grouping. That’s where you discover “you know, I think I like Bordeaux more than domestic Cabernet” or “I think I prefer the riper style of Sonoma pinot over the leaner one” or “after trying a flight of Brunello, I discovered that these two producers are ones I want to explore more.”
I think the setup is great. I auction in-home educational tastings for charities and have done all sorts of setups depending on the skill level and desires of the purchaser. A setup like this with novices is wonderful. It’s great to try to deep dive, but folks without a bunch of wine knowledge are more likely to get a lot out of a thin strip of winedom than an attempt at a regional deep dive. I mean, if folks have limited experiences with wine, generally, and are trying to learn more, having a “you know, I think I prefer Sassetti Pertimali to Casanova di Neri Tenuta Nuova for style” moment is probably not that realistic.
What I think we take for granted is our own been there done that. If you already know a ton about some wine regions, it’s a natural progression to want to learn about styles within a new wine region. If you’ve never had viognier, white burgundy, red burgundy, or wines from Southern Rhone…at all…this setup presents a great opportunity for that initial exposure. Given the broad stroke, a novice may say wow, I like syrah more than I thought I would. Or, whoa, this viognier is way more to my liking than chardonnay…I’d never have bought it, though, because I had literally no idea what it was.
The issue I see with this is that the OP is talking about varietals, but then has Southern Rhone listed. Need to be more specific if the effort is to show varietal typicity. If regional/type of wine is more important than varietal, then by all means Bdx MUST be on the list. If varietal is key:
US Cab Franc next to the Cab Sav.
Merlot
Sav Blanc.
–alternative–
Sangiovese (brunello or chianti)
Nebbiolo (barolo)
Champagne BdB (so you get three styles of chardonnay) or
Sav Blanc (loire)
These are great ideas. Will try to incorporate as many as possible. On second thought, I agree that having them simply taste non-blinded is best - they are too new/novice. But we’ll have tasting notes of sorts to help them pick out aromas and flavors.
I would hide the helping tasting notes until after everyone expresses their own impressions. Have fun!
+2
I think it’s good that you decided not to do this blind. Also, 1 oz pours are too small to really learn anything about a wine, especially for novices. I think you need 2 bottles of each wine for 24 people. 12 wines is a lot for the type of group you’re describing. I’d probably do 6-8 wines and then do another event for more categories. Maintaining focus through such a long flight is challenging for the uninitiated, and you will probably have a hard time convincing some of these people to spit, which means some of them will most likely unintentionally drink too much. I assume some of these people will have to drive afterward.
One of the most important things, in my opinion, is to give a quick primer on how to taste wine before anyone starts tasting. I find that many people who drink wine regularly do not know how to truly taste wine, and people who aren’t frequent wine drinkers rarely know how. Get them to smell the wine with their nose in the glass (not 10 inches away how many of them will doubtless be doing it) and think about what they’re smelling. Then get them to take a small sip and hold the wine in their mouths for a couple of seconds instead of just knocking it back, asking themselves what they’re tasting during and after swallowing/spitting the wine. I guarantee that some attendees will be surprised at how much more detail they notice once they’ve had those quick instructions.
One thing you could do is serve them non-blind first, then do a second pour set and blind those pours—of course, this would be more fun on a next-day basis. But it might be educational. Caveat…I’ve never thought about doing something that way, just a random thought that swam through my mind on reading the thread!
+3 on the you-choose option. Lots of other fine advice in this thread.
Mike
My interpretation of what you are trying to do is to have one bottle each from 12 “major” categories, with a little bit of a Cali tilt. With that in mind, I’d scratch the viognier and go with: