The Tuesday Tasting Report
The tasting set-up.
Jeff mentioned in his Wine Tasting Traditions post that we at AmericanWinery.com partake in a weekly tradition known affectionately around the office as “Tasting Tuesday.” Every Tuesday at 4:15, a group of AW Staffers gather to taste wine and expand our palates.
We were recently treated to a blind Syrah tasting hosted by our marketing director, Denise Slattery. Denise is also one of the winemakers for Trio Vintners, so she really knows her stuff.
We were given very simple, but strict, instructions.
1. Smell through
2. Taste through
3. Take notes
4. No talking*
After smelling through and tasting through each selection, we were instructed to rank the wines from 1-6, favorite to least. We then opened up the discussion, everyone sharing their impressions and their rank for each wine.
Six different Syrahs yielded a plethora of responses from our panel of ten tasters. Blood, meat, licorice, smoke, pennies, tomato sauce, blackberries, cinnamon, black raspberries, whiskey, toilet cleaner, prunes, must, milk chocolate, sesame, plastic, and baby powder all made an appearance. One person’s favorite was another’s least, and so on.
This was the point where, of course, I ceased to keep my big mouth shut. After getting the group consensus on each wine and compiling scores for each, Denise unveiled the wines.
One at a time, Denise would ask the group where we thought the wine was from (we didn’t keep it to just American wines, whoops!), then reveal the label and confirm or deny our suspicions. When asked where wine #5 was from, I blurted out very maturely, “Pooptown!”
Yes, Pooptown. I’m not proud of myself. I have a college degree in communications and all I can come up with is “Pooptown?” Shameful.
Denise asked me for clarification. “Where did you think this wine was from, Erica? Poopville?”
“Pooptown!” I clarified.
I was walking in to a trap. Denise revealed with much frivolity that Wine #5 was her very own Trio Vintners 2005 Syrah.
Denise consoles Erica
I began backpedaling. Asking for more, making excuses for my palate, I even threw this one out –
“You know, it is really opening up nicely!”
Again, shameful.
But Denise assured me that my evaluation of the wine was quite alright – not accurate, as the wine is clearly not from Pooptown – but she didn’t get down on me for disliking the wine. After all, everybody’s palate is different and that’s nothing to be ashamed of. Wine personalities like Gary Vaynerchuk are constantly tooting the palate horn, making it okay for you to dislike something popular or highly rated. While I didn’t particularly care for the Trio Vintners Syrah, it ended up 2nd overall from our group’s results.
That was my Blind Tasting surprise – but each of the 10 tasters that day experienced a Blind Tasting surprise of their own. Put together a blind tasting and tell me what surprises you encounter… pleasant or otherwise.
*This rule was probably meant strictly for me as I have a tendency to be a tad loquacious. Those of you familiar with my blabbery ways will be proud to know that I used my big mouth solely for sipping and spitting.
July 17th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Blind tastings are great fun, but I also find them to be VERY educational as well!
Perhaps we can see if “pooptown” can be entered in the next edition of ‘The New Wine Lover’s Companion’? ;)
July 17th, 2008 at 9:59 am
@Stacy I doubt it! I want that “appellation” to be stricken from the record of words I said.
If only such a thing were possible…
July 24th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
Erica, Your account of this tasting is great! And I love your ability to just say what you think and say it so well, pooptown aside! Thank you so much for participating! – Denise