Funny, I’ve found the opposite. If you have strong theory, deduction is the way to go. Guts lie.
I’ve had so many embarrassing misses it’s impossible to recount them in one paragraph. My favorite story on how difficult blind tastings can be is when I attended a 1982 Bordeaux tasting hosted by RMP. He guessed on all 16 wines and went 0 for 16. At the time I thought what chance do the rest of us have?
The well known wine writer Harry Waugh was once asked have you ever mistaken a Bordeaux for Burgundy. He replied not since lunch.
My favorite story on how difficult blind tastings can be is when I attended a 1982 Bordeaux tasting hosted by RMP. He guessed on all 16 wines and went 0 for 16. At the time I thought what chance do the rest of us have?
But he remembers every wine he’s tasted! I know some others who attended either that or a similar event. I think that’s why he stopped.
It’s nearly impossible to determine what something is with no context whatsoever. If I tell you it’s something from France or Italy, it kind of narrows the field but only partly and mostly only if you’re rather familiar with an area. The more familiar you are with something, the more likely you are to be right. But I’ve even seen winemakers fail to detect their own wine on occasion, so it’s never a certainty.
What makes it nearly impossible these days is that someone can pour something from Greece, Slovenia, New Zealand, South Africa or British Columbia, and if you’re not familiar with wines from those areas, you’ll have no chance.
Nah. Sometimes that’s actually easier, because it’s more of a blank slate. Then you just throw something out there, and if you’re wrong, no big deal.
That’s how I nailed a vitovska blind once. I said to myself “what the hell is this” and then went with vitovska.
If this question was regarding my santa margharita, if i remember correctly the first guess (my friends) was Torrontes (its our joking go-to when we dont know a white because we have no idea why its included on the Court Certified grid and none of us have ever seen one on a shelf before), and mine was Albarino.
Those are totally legitimate guesses. Pinot Grigio is a semi-terpenic white with medium plus acid. Not far from Albariño or a less-aromatic Torrontes.
Oh my. LOL for sure.
Not a miss of my own, but I remember tasting in Dauvissat’s cellar with a British MW who had been rhapsodizing about the superiority of Les Clos for most of the tasting. At the end, Vincent served a wine blind. We found the vintage—1996—and the MW insisted it must be Les Clos. But it was just the Petit Chablis. A great moment.
But it can happen to anyone, and I think it’s important not to hold back or hedge for fear of making mistakes: that spoils the fun.
We did it tonight. Thought a wine was a really bad Zin or Syrah but it was actually a bad Pinot Noir. Honest mistake.
We thought another was a bad Cab but it was a bad Zin.
And we thought another was a bad Chardonnay and it was.
The take-away was that a bad Chardonnay always tastes like a bad Chardonnay, but a bad Pinot Noir can taste like bad Zin.
Going back to just last night, 2014 Myriad semillon, I called 2011 Sonoma County chardonnay.
Dang!
It’s a great wine, too bad I couldn’t call it right.
Ha!
What I take away from that is you need a high quality, traditionally styled wine from a classic region to have a fighting chance. I’m really only mad when I miss at a blind tasting if it’s an old school Bdx, Rioja, Burg, Nebbiolo, N Rhone, Brunello, Chinon, etc…
I have had a number of Torrontes, both in Argentina and the US. It’s more like Viognier, but Pinot Grigio would not be a bad guess.
I’ve been in a blind tasting group since 1989 that meets monthly. I’ve had many opportunities to take a wine that I’m very familiar with and attempt to recognise it, failing on many occasions.
I’m glad to hear that! sometime i’ll actually track a torrontes down and bring it to blind tasting night and its going to blow everyone’s mind when they see it. until then, I guess its gonna keep being our hopeful wildcard guess. haha
Yeah but Torrontes can fool you too. I used to sell some from Argentina. Floral nose and sometimes soapy taste unless it was really well done. But it’s different if from Spain or elsewhere. So a few weeks ago I was blind tasting and it was a crisp, lean wine, with a hint of grass so I went with a Chenin Blanc. It was Torrontes.
William, excellent advice.
No need for it to be a wildcard. Torrontes is fairly straightforward: highly terpenic like gewurz but dry.
If it’s a good example, the only thing you could confuse it for is an Alsace Muscat (closely related grape in a similar style). It’s one of the easiest blind styles to logic your way into 
There is an old adage I love to apply to our group’s blind tastings: “I am frequently wrong but never in doubt!” ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
My failures are too numerous to count, including many failures to even come close on the variety.
Someone once slipped an MD 20/20 into a blind lineup. It tasted like antifreeze. I politely opined that it was not my style.
I’ve never completely and perfectly nailed a double blind wine. My broken clock moment cane one night when the group was presented with 2 totally blind wines. I guessed nineteen seventy-something Heitz Martha’s for a 1975 Heitz Martha’s and 1982 left bank Bordeaux for a 1982 Branaire Ducru. I should have retired from any further blind tastings then and there.