WineXpert A Tale of Three Pinots, Early Taste Test Results

[Dhaynes]

Unfortunately we weren't able to do the taste test this year. We were all set up to do it again at the company Christmas party but my wife's father passed away 2 days before the party so we had to cancel. I still want to do the taste test but haven't been able to figure out how to find a large enough pool of test subjects. We have several friends who own restaurants or businesses that sell wines but I'm thinking that doing it there might put their liquor license at risk. We don't belong to any social clubs but I'm thinking I might contact one or two of them and see if they might be interested. Anybody else got any ideas?

 

[Brian55]

Unfortunately we weren't able to do the taste test this year. We were all set up to do it again at the company Christmas party but my wife's father passed away 2 days before the party so we had to cancel. I still want to do the taste test but haven't been able to figure out how to find a large enough pool of test subjects. We have several friends who own restaurants or businesses that sell wines but I'm thinking that doing it there might put their liquor license at risk. We don't belong to any social clubs but I'm thinking I might contact one or two of them and see if they might be interested. Anybody else got any ideas?

Invite a group of friends over. Have them each bring an appetizer to share, you provide the wines. We provide a simple score sheet and a pen for each guest. Pour the wines into decanters just before the guests arrive. Place a small colored or numbered sticker on each decanter with a matching sticker on the bottle it came from to identify the wines after the tasting. If you'd like it to be a completely blind tasting for yourself as well, have someone not involved in the tasting pour and label the decanters and/or wine bottles for you.

 

[sour_grapes]

If you'd like it to be a completely blind tasting for yourself as well, have someone not involved in the tasting pour and label the decanters and/or wine bottles for you.

Your advice was great. I am just writing to mention that there is a way to do a double-blind tasting even if everyone there will be participating. Go into, say, the kitchen, and put the wines in paper bags. Then have someone else randomly label them A, B, and C, and record all tasting notes under those labels. After all the tasting is done, remove the bags.

 

[scram]

Great ideas guys I'm having a bottle of my wine right now as I cook some Mexican food... I'll have to do a blind taste with some friends n family...

 

[Dhaynes]

Update - Just had another blind taste test. The wines were started in January 2014 so they are now two years old. The sample size was a little smaller in this test 9 vs 20 before and it was a different mix of people.

There was a major shift in the voting. The inexpensive Vintners Reserve which was missed a tie for first place by 1 vote a year ago fell back to 3rd place. So it looks like the theory that the more expensive kits would overtake and pass the VR as they aged held true. The surprising thing is that the Select which had finished well back at third a year ago actual took first place this year by one vote. But to be fair, a lot of people ruled out the VR quickly but had a lot of trouble deciding between the Select and the Eclipse. A couple of them actually wanted to switch their vote from Select to Eclipse after they drank a little more of each but at that point they knew which was which so we didn't switch the votes. The total votes were Select 4, Eclipse 3, VR 2.

My wife and I did our own testing a few days later. It was a split vote. I preferred the Select by a hair because it was smoother with less alcohol harshness. She preferred the Eclipse because it was richer. Here is a summary of our tasting notes.
VR -> Color - good but lighter that the other two, Aroma - good but a little faint, Body - thinner with less mouth feel and after taste, mild alcohol bite.
Select -> Color - very nice ruby color with lots of sparkle, Aroma - good, little better than the VR, Body - rich and smooth with good finish
Eclipse -> Color - very nice, deeper red than the Select but not as much sparkle, Aroma - very nice, rich, Body - very nice rich not quite as smooth as the Select and a little more alcohol bite.

One other interesting thing that I noticed was the difference between the Eclipse we tasted at the party which was a 750 ml bottle that had been stored in a refrigerated wine keeper and the one my wife and I tasted a few days later which was a 375 ml bottle that had been stored room temperature. The 375 ml seemed smoother with less alcohol bite. I suspect that if the people at the party had sampled the 375 ml bottle it might have won.

 

[AZMDTed]

This is a great time line of these wines. Thanks for posting and keeping it up.

 

[scram]

Thanks for the update! Really appreciate it

 

[dwbaalmann]

One other interesting thing that I noticed was the difference between the Eclipse we tasted at the party which was a 750 ml bottle that had been stored in a refrigerated wine keeper and the one my wife and I tasted a few days later which was a 375 ml bottle that had been stored room temperature. The 375 ml seemed smoother with less alcohol bite. I suspect that if the people at the party had sampled the 375 ml bottle it might have won.

I may be wrong, but I recall reading somewhere that wine will age a bit faster in the 375 ml bottles. That may explain the difference. I guess the only way to know for sure would be to blind test a 750 & 375 ml bottle at the same temperature. In any case, this was a really neat idea. Thank you for presenting your findings.

 

[knockabout]

This was a super awesome experiment and write up thanks so much for the tasting notes and update!

 

[Dhaynes]

I guess there is some logic to the idea that a 375ml bottle would age faster than 750. The cork is the same size in both so they would both have the same amount of oxygen passing through them but the volume of wine in the 750ml is twice as much so each ml of wine would get half as much oxygen. The temperature difference might have something to do with it as well. The 750ml was kept in a refrigerated wine cooler that was on average 10-15 degrees cooler than the room where the 375ml was stored. The temperature difference could have slowed down the chemical processes taking place in the wine so that it matured slower.

 

[Boatboy24]

I guess there is some logic to the idea that a 375ml bottle would age faster than 750. The cork is the same size in both so they would both have the same amount of oxygen passing through them but the volume of wine in the 750ml is twice as much so each ml of wine would get half as much oxygen. The temperature difference might have something to do with it as well. The 750ml was kept in a refrigerated wine cooler that was on average 10-15 degrees cooler than the room where the 375ml was stored. The temperature difference could have slowed down the chemical processes taking place in the wine so that it matured slower.

My thinking is that both temp and bottle size contributed.

 

[britwinemaker]

This is a great thread - thanks for the original post and the update. It would seem to back up what most of us have come to conclude - cheaper kits are fine up to a year old, but beyond that the more expensive ones will shine through.

 

[wookey]

I am not sure which Select kit did you use? Selection Pinot Noir or Selection International New Zealand Pinot Noir?
Also a question to others which of these 2 would you prefer? Anybody tried to do both of them and has opinion?

Thanks