Label or Content? How do you Judge your Bubbly?… Honestly?

I love blind tastings. I love them because they are so honest. There is just the wine and your taste buds, nothing else to lean back on.

Maybe I like this form of tasting because I’ve never felt the pressure to ‘like the right stuff’, so I can really relax and be honest, but the wine world is a curious place and if you don’t have the right skills or opinions, it can be intimidating. This makes people nervous and I guess that might also be the reason for many to avoid blind tastings. It takes an expert to name the wines by grape, producer, vintage or whatever is the task at hand. In my opinion that is not what’s interesting and it has never been my goal to be good at that kind of thing. I focus instead on what I like and helping others in finding what they like and that I’m really good at.

Hosting blind tastings I always have one goal, namely finding out what people really like when they turn just to themselves and stop caring about labels, price tags and wine professionals telling them what is good and what is not. Getting people to do this can be rather tricky though, for there is a notion that you should like certain types of wine to ‘have good taste’. For example, to admit that you don’t like the certain style that Champagne has… that takes guts, because by doing so you basically break every social code there is. Champagne is the essence of passion, glamour, good taste, luxury etc. and by saying you don’t like it, you kind of put yourself out of all those contexts too and who does not want to be glamourous and have good taste?

So making people let go of all these preconceptions and instead focus on what they like (or maybe don’t like) about each wine, is much more interesting. During these tastings lively discussions always break out after a while when the participants have taken the task to heart. Some people like the ”peachiness” in one glass, others the high acidity in another or maybe the smell of roasted nuts in the third and this is where it gets interesting. By letting consumers focus on what particular tastes or aromas they like in a wine, I can guide them in what style, grape, method or maybe area they might find more bubbly wines to enjoy. It simply makes the wine hunt easier.

In my personal opinion life is all about good wine, nice food and the company of those I love and like to spend time with. If the wine I drink costs 10 Euros or 100 Euros, it does not really matter as long as I like it and it goes well with the food and or occasion. Sometimes it is Cava, other times it is Champagne or sparkling wine from South Africa.

If you think about it too, would you not honestly be happier to drink something that you really love, rather than something someone else really loves or says is good taste?

Written by Anna Wallner