White Wine Blind Tasting – The Ultimate Test! | Vino Blind Ep. 6

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Welcome to our Blind Wine Tasting series, “Vino Blind!” In our 6th episode, I’ve got a white wine in front of me, and I have no idea what it is. I’ll use sight, smell, and taste to try and guess the grape, the place, the quality, and how old the wine is. I’ll use the same principles used in WSET or The Court of Master Sommeliers, so this video will be very helpful if you’re studying for any exams. It’s also just a good exercise to help you learn how to taste wine better. Will I get it right? Watch to find out!

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Some helpful links:
SPOILER ALERT, ANSWER HERE: http://tinyurl.com/cdctzhu5

Our How to Blind Taste Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XglPTBk9VQw

The CMS Tasting Grid: https://www.mastersommeliers.org/sites/default/files/2023%20CMS-A%20Advanced%20and%20Master%20Sommelier%20Deductive%20Tasting%20Format_0.pdf

List of CMS Advanced Level Wines: https://www.mastersommeliers.org/sites/default/files/CMS-A%20Advanced%20Sommelier%20Level%20Wine.pdf
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Possible grapes and places:

Albarino
Spain – Rías Baixas

Chardonnay
France – Chablis – AOP, Premier Cru, Grand Cru
France – Côte de Beaune – Major Village AOPs, Premier Cru, Grand Cru
France – Mâconnais – AOP, Major Village AOPs, Premier Cru
California – Carneros / Napa Valley / Russian River Valley / Sonoma Coast / Sonoma Valley
Australia – Adelaide Hills / Margaret River / Padthaway / Yarra Valley

Chenin Blanc
France (Loire) – Montlouis-sur-Loire / Vouvray / Savennières

Gewürztraminer
France – Alcase

Grüner Veltliner
Austria – Kamptal/Kremstal/Wachau

Print Gris
France – Alcase
Italy – Friuli / Trentino-Alto Adige

Riesling
Germany – Mosel / Rheingau / Rheinhessen / Pfalz / Nahe
Australia – Clare Valley / Eden Valley
France – Alcase

Sauvignon Blanc
France (Loire) – Sancerre / Pouilly-Fumé
France (Bordeaux) – PessacLéognan / Graves
New Zealand – Marlborough

Torrontes
Argentina – Mendoza / Salta

Viognier
France (Rhône) – Condrieu

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00:00 Introduction
00:34 Sight
01:07 Nose
02:44 Palate
04:27 Initial Conclusion
08:50 Final Conclusion
09:08 REVEAL!
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My first impression is this is going to be tough I’m describing so many wines right now welcome to venol Blind where we sit down and we blind taste a wine together we kind of go through the process so I’ve got all these notes Here I can take you through the step by step

I do if you haven’t watched our how to blind taste videos I’d highly recommend watching those first because those give the theory of what we’re going to talk about in detail and this is kind of more of a how to execute video that being said got a white wine here it’s our

First of today’s session and I’m excited to dive in so let’s do it from a color perspective this is a straw straw to to Yellow maybe a little bit of kind of Rim variation a watery Rim that might tell me a little bit about the age the straw

Yellow straw to Yellow kind of character leads me to believe that this is maybe a wine that has some oxygen in it or maybe kind of a richer style of wine less like lean but we won’t know that until we really Dive In and you know my rule the

First smell on the nose is in my opinion the most important you get your first impressions out of it so here we go all right my first impression is this is going to be tough like I get apples and citrus and stone fruit and that

Could be a whole lot of wines there’s no obvious giveaways right away you know petrol for reeling or something like that so this is going to be a tough one I think uh which is which is fine I’m up for a challenge on the nose in particular let’s get intensity medium good

Minerality now that I dive in again good kind of clean minerality from a fruit perspective lots of citrus lemon lemon peel not so much like tart lime but like lemon and then I get apples and I get a little bit of kind of peach character as

Well so we’re in that like lean to medium range at least on the nose as far as fruit remember your white fruits go Citrus and then they go apples and then they go stone fruit and then they go Tropical I’m not in tropical uh I don’t

Think so that puts me on this side of the spectrum as far as climate and things like that the fruit character right fresh maybe the Citrus is a tad like you know that that that gives me a little bit of that tart that kind of under ripeness but then the same thing I

Don’t think the stone fruits like really developed so I can need floral maybe a little a little flowers but it’s definitely not you know this isn’t an aromatic wine right I’m not getting this big perfumey pop out kind of thing okay let’s get in on the palette this is just

I’m describing so many wines right now you know this could be a lot of things so let’s get in on the palette that was the first sip of the day and I brushed my teeth a little bit ago so we’re going to do it again ooh

Juicy okay very very juicy flavor is the first first thing I’ll ask is like is there anything new not really that Citrus though man it’s a lot of citrus is there any sugar no this is a bone dry wine no Oak presents either I’m not you

Notice I’m not talking I didn’t get on the nose I’m not getting on the palette you know I didn’t talk vanilla I didn’t talk baking spice I didn’t talk anything like that I didn’t talk malolactic fermentation the acid is through the roof really really juicy right this it’s

Almost like I sucked on a lemon and I get that mouth my mouth is really salivating even after I sip so lots and lots of acid the body is medium for sure it’s just got some weight to it the alcohol medium my gut would say this is

133% which is actually I guess maybe medium Plus or white finish and complexity definitely medium minus I’m not getting a whole lot out of this I’m being honest uh not getting a whole lot of different flavors and components I I’ve talked about it pretty much apples

And acid as I say apples and acid and citrus a little bit of flowers one thing I am getting from a flavor standpoint that I didn’t mentioned earlier I’m getting some bitterness and I’m pretty sure that’s some phenolic bitterness phenolic bitterness is kind of like the tannin of white wine gives the white

Wine a little bit of backbone a little bit of structure it’s that it’s bitter it’s it’s literally a little bit of bitterness on the finish and that can tell us a little bit about which grape it might be all right so let’s talk about is this an old world or a new

World wine and if you’ve been watching any of these other videos that I posted this is the hardest part for me always to pick I think this is an old world wine and the reason I’m saying that is because Old Worlds tend have more cooler climates and this has cool climate

Tendencies it’s got a lot of acidity I I I am getting a good amount of minerality so I think this is an oldw World cool climate wine at least for now I’m going to revisit that when I go through the grapes but let’s go through our grapes

And determine what it isn’t right this is deductive tasting so we’re trying to get rid of options first and then we’ll hold in what it is alberino could definitely be alberino I’ll come back to why I think it might be that but is it chardonay it could theoretically be sh

But the weight to me is a little heavy for sh it could be sh I’m not really getting the chalkiness the bitterness though chard wouldn’t have that bitterness I’m going to say no it could be sh it doesn’t have any of the Hallmark oak or mctic fermentation it definitely doesn’t have

Any tropical notes that would happen from a riper Californian Chard shbl is from northern burgundy it tends to have no Oak and it would have this might have this body the thing that would give be the giveaway for sh is kigian soils make this chalky chalky minerality and I

Don’t know if I get that a ton and then also that bitterness is not a Chardonnay character so I’m going to say it’s not Chardonnay but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s should B is it shanon blanc no fruit character doesn’t match up to shanon Blanc monk uh and I’m not getting

Any of the waxy or the honey or the lanoline or any of those things I sometimes get a converion meter no way not floral at all is it gruner no too much body this like medium body is is too heavy I think for gruner or also don’t get any vegetable notes I don’t

Get any white pepper is it Pino gree could be we’ll come back to that is it reasing no no way way too heavy a body no you know none of the aromatics that come with reing it’s it’s all Blanc no I don’t get any Gooseberry I don’t get any

Green uh is it tones no not aromatic enough is it vi& no not aromatic enough so we’re actually down to two grapes we’re not doing bad it’s alberino or it’s Peno GRE in my opinion if it’s alberino it’s from RI V Spain and if it’s p gree it’s from fi in Italy or

It’s from alsas in France okay now we have to land on our final conclusion what would make the difference between alberino or Pino green both would have have that phenolic bitterness so that doesn’t help me determine anything which is kind of a bummer I was hoping I would get some

Clues from that but both would have that biggest difference I can think of with alberino is I would get a a salinity from the ocean you know it’s close to the ocean and it’s kind a Hallmark salinity and then from a body perspective I think alberino would be

Lighter but there are examples of richer style alberinos but that richer style alberinos usually come from aging on the leaves comes like a creaminess not a body and this has some weight to me but Pino gree would have the phenolic bitterness it would have the weight do I

Get the salinity the salinity would be the car the main thing if I’m getting salinity it’s alberino right I I cuz you don’t get that quite as much with Pino gregio or Peno gree maybe a bit I might expect alberino to give me more of that peachy flavor and I am getting

That h hey you guys picked some curve balls you guys uh the reing I guess wasn’t a curve ball that was an easy one so I got to have some hard ones in here right another Italian wine maybe I think something we something we would visited

Right I should know both these wines cuz I’ve got an Italian crew and we’ve Bend Ria spyes let’s just go over this one more time alberino would be salty and in my opinion riper but it all depends where it’s from penio I don’t think this is alashan penree I don’t think alcohol

Is quite high enough it could be man this is hard like alashan Peno green and alvarinho like how do you differentiate those all right I’m going to have to go with my gut I do think I’m getting a little bit of that salinity I maybe just

Be talking myself into it but I do think I’m getting it and that would be a key of alvarinho to me here’s what we’re going to say we’re going to say it’s alvarinho from rpes I think this is $19 bottle of wine and I think it’s young I

Think it’s a 20 21 vintage final answer alberino from rpas $19 2021 vintage okay yeah I’m good I mean we will see now obviously the reveal is the most exciting part ready oh I got it boom it was the salinity all right I’m into it what year

Is it 2020 one year off how much was this this is actually I think a a little bit more pricey bottle I know the producer yeah yeah yeah um all right so I was able to to get it you know what gave it away was at the end of the day

The salinity uh it’s not hugely pronounced but it is there and that’s the one thing that you know to me is one of the biggest differences between a g or ggio and an alveno uh this gazan makes great lines they’re one of our producers actually from our episode though I haven’t had

This wine from them I think this is their entry level stuff uh delicious wine I was able to get you know the Year too I I was only a year off I mean this just tastes drinks like a young wine but really delicious stuff I’m happy I got

It I’m now four of six I would say four and A2 because I got really close on the other two so I’m four and a half of six I’m feeling good I hope this helped you kind of learn how how we can deduce and I think what’s important is that like

Even if I’d gotten it wrong at the end I would have been okay with it because I I would have got really close and that’s the most important thing is you learn how to hone in your skills you know I might spend some time on the internet

Saying all right how can I better determine alberino versus gree or ggio and for that matter gree vers ggio how do I determine alashi and gree verus Italian pinio so that would be the area if I’m going to work on something personally that’s that’s where I work uh

But thanks again good to see you guys and we will do this again in the next video see you soon