Blind Tasting

It was the week before Christmas and we were back in France to celebrate a birthday party. At lunch one afternoon my brother- in- law put us to the test trying to identify the wine. We were eating free range roast chicken and had downed half a bottle of Mercurey Les Montelons 2008. He then produced another bottle of red wine but with the label covered. We had to guess the wine. As the shape of the bottle was the same as a Burgundy we were already getting some clues. My wife and I were then invited to smell the wine first but not to taste it. The wine had a slightly vegetal scent which led us to believe that it might have been another red Burgundy. We then tasted it and immediately we could sense the spicy flavour of Syrah grapes and the wine was very tannic. All the time my brother- in- law was trying to lead us astray by mentioning the pope. Châteauneuf-du-Pape usually contains Syrah in its blend but this wine had an overwhelming taste of Syrah. We correctly guessed that it was from the northern Rhône region. My wife and I could not narrow it down further. The blind tasted wine was in fact Domaine du Pavillon Mercurol Crozes-Hermitage 2006. This wine was a good example of a northern Rhône appellation with red fruit, spices and lychees on the palate coupled with a slightly vegetal and floral aroma on the nose. The wine also was well structured with good strong tannins which were now starting to soften.

We had done quite well to identify where the wine had come from and the wine itself had shown good regional character. It is also a special tribute to my wife's palate as she has never had any formal education in wine tasting.

Tasting wine blind and identifying where the wine comes from is one of the most difficult things that I have ever done and whenever I have taken wine exams very few points were awarded for specifically identifying the wine. It is almost impossible to identify a wine unless you have drunk lots of it. Whilst doing my wine courses as an amateur in the company of industry professionals I have seen some of my colleagues making some bizarre choices during the tasting exams. One of my colleagues mistook a Tawny Port for a Rutherglen Muscat fortified wine. This happened because he was under extreme pressure and had temporarily lost his sense of taste and reason under the examination conditions; something which he never would have done whilst playing a game of spot the wine in the living room. Our senses cannot always be perfect and this is what makes wine tasting and assessment very difficult. One of my teachers, a Master of Wine, was unable to spot that a wine we were tasting was corked. Her excuse was that some days she was less sensitive to trichloroanisole and tribromoanisole which are the two chemicals responsible for the musty cork taint of spoilt wine. It was probably true but just goes to show that Masters of Wine can be just as fallible as the rest of us.

Mercurey Les Montelons 2008 can be obtained from Carrefour for around 10 Euros a bottle and it is a jolly fine wine it too.

Domaine du Pavillon Mercurol Crozes-Hermitage 2006 can also be obtained in Carrefour for 6 to 7 Euros a bottle. It is great wine with regional character and it is even better value for money.