Blind Tasting Like a Master of Wine
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I use this wine key: Forge de Laguiole Ebony
I have used the following glass in this video: Spiegelau Definition Universal Glass
I have tasted the following wines in this Video:
2008 A.R. Lenoble Blanc de Blancs Chouilly Grand Cru Millesime, Champagne, France
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/a+r+lenoble+blancdeblanc+choully+grand+cru+millesime+champagne+france/2008/germany?referring_site=KSB
Palmento Constanzo Etna Bianco DOC “Bianco di Sei” 2018, Italy
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/palmento+costanti+bianco+di+sei+etna+sicilia+italy/2018?referring_site=KSB
2022 Susana Balbo Wines ‘Crios’ Torrontes, Cafayate, Argentina
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/susana+balbo+crios+torront+cafayate+valley+salta+argentina/2022?referring_site=KSB
2018 Cellar de Capcanes Old Vine Cabrida Garnacha, Montsant, Spain
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/cellars+capcanes+cabrida+garnacha+vinyes+velle+montsant+catalonia+spain/2018?referring_site=KSB
2013 Domaine Zind-Humbrecht Muscat Goldert, Alsace Grand Cru, France
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/dom+zind+humbrecht+muscat+goldert+alsace+grand+cru+france/2013?referring_site=KSB
Henriques & Henriques 10 Years Old Sercial, Madeira, Portugal
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/henriques+ten+old+sercial+madeira+portugal?referring_site=KSB
The 100 Point Scoring System (from www.robertparker.com):
96-100: An extraordinary wine of profound and complex character displaying all the attributes expected of a classic wine of its variety. Wines of this caliber are worth a special effort to find, purchase and consume.
90 – 95: An outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and character. In short, these are terrific wines.
80 – 89: A barely above average to very good wine displaying various degrees of finesse and flavor as well as character with no noticeable flaws.
70 – 79: An average wine with little distinction except that it is soundly made. In essence, a straightforward, innocuous wine.
60 – 69: A below-average wine containing noticeable deficiencies, such as excessive acidity and/or tannin, an absence of flavor or possibly dirty aromas or flavors.
50 – 59: A wine deemed to be unacceptable.
72 years ago, 21 candidates sat the first Master of Wine Exam. Only 6 of them passed and became the first Masters of Wine.
Since then, many have attempted to become Masters of Wine, but few succeed. How few? Well, there are only 421 MWs worldwide, which means that more people have been to space, won an Olympic gold medal, or are billionaires.
The exam is overall challenging, but the most difficult part of it is the blind tasting. In the Blind Tasting, candidates have to describe and identify 36 wines over three days.
Without knowing anything about the exam wines, they have to identify the grape varieties, origins, winemaking techniques, vintage, sugar, alcohol, and quality levels …
What might sound impossible to most people is possible … but it requires a lot of practice and discipline. I passed my tasting exam 12 years ago. Although I still blind taste regularly, I am probably not at the same level as I was back then.
However, today I want to teach you how to identify wines blind by revealing my secrets to show you how to taste like a Master…
36 Comments
super cool
I have such an awesome time watching your videos, sir. A tremendous amount of gratitude being sent to your way!
At a holiday in the Nahe region one winery did the tasting for our group like a blind tasting. I guessed one of the white wines was a blanc de noir and was right. That earned me some respect that day.
Great work!
What a great tasting, thank you, Agnes!
That would be really interesting if you gave a second try after you reveal the labels! 🤔
❤😊🙌
Blind tasting is fun and helps to keep us humble. It is only fair if we use really good examples and that generally means spending some money. If we lined up six bottles of $6-8 plonk, then Planet Earth would be an acceptable answer. I once identified a wine's point of origin because I had had a wine from the vineyard on the other side of the road. I once identified a Riesling and got the vintage correct even though it was twelve years ago. I once identified a Nebbiolo because it had a tannic slap at the end. This was after calling a Nebbiolo a Chianti Classico a few weeks previously because there was no tannic slap at the end. Oh well. Identifying a Nebbiolo as a Chianti Classico seems to be a common mistake. The important part of tasting a wine is being able to explain it in words that could help a customer decide what to do. The other important part is being able to decide if the wine will work well with food and what type of food.
So great, I can measure the difference as I am just a studient for WSET Diploma 🙂 So cool of you to share your tasting process
Would like you to share more about how you determine the level of acidity, the level of alcohol, etc.
What is the feeling/taste that separates high/medium/low.
I’m pretty good at identifying the grape or grapes used in wine, but IMHO, knowing WHO, WHAT and WHERE a wine came from relies on drinking endless amounts of wine and collecting endless descriptions of wine, and use ALL those descriptions when tasting. My friend and his wife think it’s hilarious how I describe wine we taste. They laugh at me.
Would it be possible for you to share the mind map you use to narrow down the varietal and location? For example, white vs red -> color, etc
Why is it that I, generally, find MWs to be engaging and worth my time and attention, but MSs to broadly be smug, judgmental, and more apt to confuse confirmation bias with reality?
I appreciate that you made yourself vulnerable.
Great Job! As an active MW student, it's admirable how much you stay on top of your tasting practice. We have to do something about those blind bags though… Why not get your assistant to pour the wines in clear bottles like they do for the actual exam?
I’ve been a regular buyer and drinker of Zind Humbrecht wines for years. The muscats age beautifully but in my experience lose their varietal grapiness early on – so you can be forgiven for thinking it was a pinot gris.
Great vid, thanks.
Herr Konstantin, it almost looks as if you have a "gurgling cod' from Shreve Crump and Low in Boston, USA behind you. I may be wrong, but it wouldn't surprise me if this noble fish is watching behind a gentleman like you.
Crios is from Valle de Uco in Mendoza
Great video as usual! Had a wine distributor buddy blind me on 7-8 wines one night, think I called about 4 pretty spot on although some were pretty obvious bankers (California Chard for instance) – but was very proud of my South African Chenin call, even got the exact vintage.
I have been nailed during a blind tasting with gewurz Kontsi! It was (Gewurz)Traminer from Alto Adige so it was much livelier and more white flower focused than rose petal. If not for the color and very high alcohol I would have been in Viogner 100%, thought about Torrontes for a second but the alcohol was way too high.
ToronTES – accent over the final e – most of them are from SALTA. Am a language teacher … sorry fo the critique … but you are one of my inspirations! Keep up the great work!
Good video!
Very nice video. The exam is always done in english, never french? So professional from Konstantin to know how to pronounce 5 to 6 languages. Just you might wanna know Torrontés has the accent on the last syllable. At least they pronounce it like that in Argentina.
Great stuff i love workshops like that keep those debunks more olease thanks
great stuff!
I would binge watch dozens of videos like that.
By the way i tried a really good Torrontes wine from Ribeiro in Galicia, Spain
Great video! Thank you for giving us a deeper look into the MW Exam. Your videos get better and more “complex” over the years. 🍇
Another great video. Thank you so much for allowing us to pick up your brain! Would like to see at least another one like this dedicated mainly to the red wines.
This is such a great video, thank you! Blind tasting is difficult and i really appreciate you showing us with honesty!
I loved this. Please do more like this.
Great video!
Lucky to swerve the Etna Bianco there! Am taking Diploma and feel I am building up to what you said and am not far off. Can't do it on camera though! Really enjoyed the video. Thank you
Schade dass der Etna Bianco gekorkt war, liebe die Weine vom Etna.
Genau auf das Video habe ich gewartet – hilft ungemein! Vielen Dank, Konstantin!
Tolles Video, Danke! Hat viel Spaß gemacht mitzuidentifizieren 😊 anhand dem was du sagst
We often do blind tastings of wines from three or four known alternatives of wines we have never had. Lets us rate without bias, and my identification success rate (based on vivino notes) is not much better than random selection. I tend to be rubbish at identifying grape and region, although I am smug when I get it right! Admire your knowledge and development of skills. Great fun, thank you.
Lots of fun. Give yourself a little more credit on the Garnacha. Monstant is along the Mediterranean coast not so far from Rousillon and production method was probably the same. Identifying the Sicilian wine would have been brutal.. Maybe you are lucky that it was corked!🤣