The CT vs. experts thread got me thinking. What are your best blind tasting “gets.” How about your worst? There have to be some fun stories out there. I’ll leave my best for later, but my worst was saying that the 2007 Saxum James Berry was a thin, insipid, overly acidic wine that had no flavor and did nothing for me.
My best was nailing an '88 Lynch Bages and an '06 Keller double blind on the same night. Chris Kravitz correctly noted I wouldn’t be insufferable after that.
The same Mr. Kravitz nailed a stunning '81 Unico double blind at a BDX dinner a few years ago. I think I was somewhere in Italy, but completely guessing, only thinking it wasn’t Bordeaux (although I wasn’t certain). That was a staggering work of blind tasting genius. I have to note it every time I talk about the subject.
My worst was when Ben Goldberg served me '82 Gruaud Larose, which I described as how BDX should taste after I had repeated trashed GL. Doh! Blind tasting keeps you humble.
I nailed 2001 Charvin double blind.
Don’t have a ton of experience tasting blind but I went to dinner a while back and had a Dolcetto that I absolutely hated. Fast forward a month or so and I went with my fiancee to pick up some wines at Full Pull, where they always pour you something blind when you pick up. Same damn wine and I knew right away. My fiancee didn’t even remember the wine from dinner and was astonished. My palate isn’t very sophisticated, just spiteful.
In a blind flight of Pinot noir and was convinced the entire flight was Syrah. Oops.
That reminds me of when Lauren and I were at the Girl and the Fig in August. We ordered glasses of Syrah and Grenache from local producers we had never tried and when the server placed them down we were surprised at how much we loved the Grenache and how bored we were with the Syrah. We talked about it back and forth, how we’d never had such a meaty peppery Grenache, and how much it reminded us of the types of Northern Rhone and Rocks Syrah we usually love. After dinner we called all over and found the Grenache at retail ($18 or something quite cheap), walked across town to buy a bottle (thinking we might buy a whole case) and went back to our hotel room triumphantly, bottle in hand. We cracked it open and lo and behold it was the “Syrah” from dinner we didn’t like. The server had just mixed them up on his tray on the way over. In hindsight, duh the meaty peppery delicious thing we both loved was obviously a Syrah, I think the color is what threw him and us off too, as the Grenache was rather purple and the Syrah was a fairly red.
several years ago buzz, bc little, mike sai and i had a blind tasting at buzz’s palatial estate. we had a roumier in the mix among other burgs and higher end pinot…we all thought (i did anyway) that we had the roumier pegged and that it was easily the wine of the flight. the reveal had us floored - the wine ended up being an oregon pinot that mike lifted for $4? at a local Grocery Outlet.
i’m not even going to tell you about the time i thought a 94 gallo cab was blue chip left bank behemoth.
Best ever was nailing the 1985 Bartolo Mascarello Barolo completely blind. Wine was brought to the table in a decanter. Took about 10 minutes of figuring to get wine type, producer and vintage.
There have been a few other close calls, but that was the best.
Worst was calling a Willi Schaefer Kabinett a “second rate Alsace Pinot Gris.”
At Peter H’s place earlier this year the whole table tag-teamed Cayuse God Only Knows blind, each person got a piece and it snowballed into a correct guess on my part: Jay (“is this a Rhone Ranger?”), Amelie (“this has got to be Grenache”), Lauren (“the nose screams ‘The Rocks’”) and me (I basically just named the first Rocks Grenache I could think of thereby stealing all the credit).
I came back from the bathroom at a tasting a while back with my glass refilled with something red and looked down at the closest bottle. “Wow this definitely has that great dusty quality I like in Merlot, great typicity…” cue Lauren “uh, honey, you’re drinking the Malbec…” open mouth insert foot take off ascot
Best was at a friend’s annual blind tasting. The format is that you get 1 point each for vintage, country, region, variety, and specific wine. I was 3 points behind going into the last wine. It puzzled me for a few minutes, then it clicked, while the rest of the group was completely flummoxed, with all sorts of wild guesses being made. When I asked the host if the wine had a Sasquatch on the label, everyone else thought I was making a joke and joining in the fun (one wag had thrown out “South Carolina carignan” as his guess), but the host looked like someone just walked over his grave. I correctly identified the wine as the 2014 Dirty and Rowdy Familiar Mourvèdre for 5 points and the win. I’ve nailed wines blind before, but getting to ask about the Sasquatch put this one solidly at the top of the list.
My worst blind tasting story was at the same event a few years before, where I scored about 9 points from a possible 50, with less than 1/2 the points of the next lowest contestant, and I think most of the points I had were dumb luck.
I learned a long time ago to profess my guesses strongly and with confidence. Do so, and people will remember the successes for years, while the memories of even the most spectacular misses tend to fade quickly.
Any memory of what the bargain bin OPN was?
Funny, mine is the opposite. I called a flight of Syrah a flight of Pinot Noir. There have been a couple of good times too, but I think the bad ones are more important to remember.
Recently, I nailed one wine as a bottle of cr@p, double blind. 
I did that too. It was the Chateau Simard that you brought to an offline years ago and poured out of your sock.
Ah, you did a full Zylberberg.
That’s good advice that extends well beyond the act of guessing wines… 
My favorite ever was when my buddy brought a bottle covered and poured it blind. I correctly, loudly and with much swirling, sniffing and pomp, pronouced it 2005 Red Truck. He was dumb founded. I never explained to him that I had never had the wine but it was in a brown paper bag, which is what the PLCB bags in and that is the only store option in PA, and I knew the local one like the back of my hand, I knew he would go to the cab and red blend section and pick out the most expensive bottle there. It was to be a wine night where we typically would drink higher end stuff but he forgot to bring bottle from home 
At the time, sadly, the most expensive red in the store was red truck. Nowadays a buddy has taken over the store and thankfully has packed it full of goodies 
The worst was when educated guess finished second of 28 cabs in a group of 16 drinkers. It was only out voted by Maybach but also present were harlan, kapcsandy, colgin, pride reserve, dominus, schrader, etc
Good blind guess: Guessing Muscadet when I’d only ever had one before and that over a decade before tasting the blind wine.
Bad blind guess: At a wine society tasting walkround, guessing Musar Pere et Fils as a Rhone wine. A shame we’d drunk that very same wine with our tasting group earlier that month, indeed considering it the best wine that night. Such a short memory.
I thought a Musar Blanc was a rosé
- 2001 Chateau Musar Blanc - Lebanon, Bekaa Valley (2/27/2014).
G5 - Variety is the Spice of Life (Juliette): Thought it was rosé until the label was displayed, ah! This is on my bucket list of wines because of the uniqueness. Push the light peach color on the spectrum driven by the oxidation, it is a white wine. I really struggled to decode the aromas, I was stumped. Palate has a very strong salinity, most forward I’ve tasted, right from the attack. There is unripe nectarine and lemon flavors. Finish showed a hint of anise. Really cool experience.
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I remember that night pretty clearly. Some pretty awesome dinners in that Bordeaux group. I think we need a reunion soon!
And you and the GL rants… One of those epic, in your face moments. I’m going to open one this weekend in your honor!