Wine Tasting Work Event - #2 homemade vs commercial

[NorCal]

@4score and I are going to a conference in Vegas once again in Feb. Last year we hosted a wine tasting competition with our customers and prospects and it was a hit.

@sour_grapes suggested in that post we “throw in a commercial wine” and we are thinking of doing just that; having a homemade vs. commercial contest. Completely blind 8 or so homemade, 8 commercial. Probably do 4 groups of 4 different varietals. 1 of mine, 1 of 4Score’s and two commercial. The commercial will be of good quality, so we need to figure out what that means, maybe a min of 85 points on the top rating agencies.

Thinking Cab Franc, Cab Sauv, Viognier or Chenin Blanc, Rhone blend, but need 4Score’s thoughts as well. They would all be in the same bottle type / cork and numbered, so even 4Score and I will not know which is which.

The contestants will have a sheet and they would guess which is homemade, which is commercial and mark which is their favorite. Besides getting some interesting data, whoever gets the most votes for favorite wine gets the master bedroom for the conference. The tie breaker will be who got the most votes that their wine was commercial.

Any ideas on how to stage the event? Rules?

From last year:

 

[1d10t]

With beer I have 4, maybe 5, people that have demonstrated they have the palate necessary for discriminating flavors. As an example. One of these people was able to pick out blueberry as an ingredient used in one beer and I couldn't even do it AFTER I'd been told. This doesn't mean we like the same things. It means if they give a critique of one of my beers I know what they say is valid and I can use that as a data point. I can trust them to point out flaws, suggest improvements, etc... The 'point' of this is just to make sure you value the opinion of those marking the sheets.

 

[sour_grapes]

Interesting, but not exactly on your topic. You tried to quote me @sour_grapes , but you wrote @sourgrapes . Now, I did not know there was such a user. He started about a year before me, and has never posted, but his most recent activity is kinda recent. If you eventually read this, Hi there, my namesake! (Actually, I guess I am the namesake, as you were the original.)

Kinda funny that NorCal revealed this, because he originally picked a name based on this theme, too.

Back on topic: I like your idea. How are you planning to repackage all the wines into a common bottle/cork? I have tried (with moderate success) to perform double-blind tastings as follows. One person puts blank paper bags over the wine bottles, then leaves the room. Another person (usually a guest, so they don't know the full extent of the wines), puts labels on each of the wines (A, B, C, D, etc.). To the extent feasible, the pouring is done out of view of the others by the least knowledgable person. All the recipient of each glass knows is the letter of the wine.

 

[4score]

I agree on the varietals. Not sure if the Chenin will be bottled by then....if not, Viognier will work. I should have my 2018 CF bottled by then. It promises to be a beast!

What about 4 from each of us representing those varieties and one commercial (4 total)? You pick up two and I'll pick up the other two. Then we have a case and the logistics will be easier.

 

[NorCal]

I’m going to do a test run on the contest at my family Christmas party this weekend. 9 bottles, same bottle and cork, what is in the bottle is on a card and in an envelope, taped to the bottle. I’ll have someone else right the bottle number on the envelope and the bottle, so even I won’t know which is which.

3 Cab Sauvs under $5, including a 2 buck chuck

1 Cab Sauv 90+ point, $20+
1 Cab Franc 90+ point, $20+
1 Bordeaux blend 90+ point $20+

1 Cab Sauv homemade
1 Cab Franc homemade
1 Bordeaux blend homemade

Will be interesting, given half my family doing the judging really aren’t into wine.

 

[sour_grapes]

I like it!

 

[ibglowin]

Should be fun and interesting to see the results!

 

[NorCal]

Here is the scoring sheet I came up with.

 

[NorCal]

Stage is set for tonight.

 

[crushday]

Stage is set for tonight.

View attachment 57924

How did it go?

 

[NorCal]

It was so much fun! A great way to do a tasting with a big mixed group. Still digesting the data and I’ll share that shortly.

What was so fun is that we had a mix of knowledgeable wine drinkers and complete novice. Put it this way, one person literally spit the wine out and the other person picked it as their favorite.

 

[crushday]

Put it this way, one person literally spit the wine out and the other person picked it as their favorite.

Unbelievable. Hopefully, the expelled wine was commercial!

 

[NorCal]

Unbelievable. Hopefully, the expelled wine was commercial!

It was the $4 wine, had to be 4% residual sugar.

 

[Kraffty]

looking forward to reading the results also

 

[NorCal]

Got real busy with family in town and work got in the way today. I'll analyze the results tonight and share the findings.

 

[NorCal]

Below was the best way to show the results. We had a smaller sample size of sheets completed than I was expecting (9), because most all the couples (6) decided to do it together. I did all the drinkers together than threw out the 3 sheets, where they only guessed 3 or less of the wines correctly, and then looked at what I called "Wine Drinkers".

To me, the data shows:

- The drinkers were most accurate in picking out the $5 wine.
- My wine had a similar miss pattern as the $20+ / 90+ point wine.


Some interesting info.
- When I tally all the votes and circle the actual category, the group got 8 out of the 9 wines correct.
- I got 7/9 categories correct, mixing up mine and a $20+, 90+

The winner, my daughter got sent home with a magnum of the 2018 Cabernet Franc. All and all, I like the format. It was simple enough that everyone could follow. Not sure I would do the "guess the specific wine" as pretty much everyone just guessed and the results showed that. Another interesting note was that all the $5 wines were sweet. I think this is an attraction for novice wine drinkers and can also be mistaken as being "fruit forward" by experienced drinkers.

 

[NorCal]

The conference in Vegas is next week and @4score and we have the blind wine tasting contest set. We are going to do 6 different wines (2 or 3 bottles each, not in this order) ;

1. NorCal Cab Sauv
2. 90+ point Cab Sauv
3. 4Score Cab Franc
4. 90+ point Cab Franc
5. <$5 Merlot
6. 90+ point Merlot

We won't tell them how many of each varietal or category, only that there is a minimum of one in each category and varietal. They will also get to choose the favorite overall and whomever's wine gets the most votes between @4score and me gets the master suite. We expect around 20 wine drinkers.

 

[NorCal]

The event was fun, but we had a number of people drop out late, so we had fewer people participate than expected.

There were a total of 8 participants, not counting @4score and myself. Like I have found with most of these, the data is as mixed as the people judging the wine. Two participants chose the <$5 as their favorite and one participant got 5 out of the 6 correct, which was the winning score. None of the participants chose 4Score or my wine as their favorite.

It should be noted that @4score got all 6 right, I mixed 2 of them up and got a score of 4.

 

[Ignoble Grape]

The event was fun, but we had a number of people drop out late, so we had fewer people participate than expected.

There were a total of 8 participants, not counting @4score and myself. Like I have found with most of these, the data is as mixed as the people judging the wine. Two participants chose the <$5 as their favorite and one participant got 5 out of the 6 correct, which was the winning score. None of the participants chose 4Score or my wine as their favorite.

It should be noted that @4score got all 6 right, I mixed 2 of them up and got a score of 4.

View attachment 58638
View attachment 58639

I'm inspired! Great fun.