Mission Blind Tasting
Whether you are studying for a wine exam or just wish to get more from the wine-tasting experience, this series will build into a comprehensive resource to guide you through how to assess a wine, tasted blind. As each new article is published, it will appear on this page.
Mission Blind Tasting articles
Learn to taste – and think – like a wine pro. Whether you’re studying for a wine exam or just want to learn how to get more out of your glass, Sam will teach you how in Mission Blind Tasting...
What you need for a successful blind tasting, and how to set one up. For background, see How – and why – to blind taste. The only items you really need for a blind tasting are a glass, a brown-bagged...
Just looking closely can help you figure out what wine is in your glass. Welcome back to Mission Blind Tasting! Now that we’ve covered the varied approaches to blind tasting, and all the things you need for blind tasting (see...
The power of scent, and how to harness it to figure out what’s in your glass. In last week’s MBT, we focused on gathering visual clues. Today we’ll dig into how to evaluate the ‘nose’, aka aromas, of a wine...
How to evaluate everything you feel and taste in a sip of wine. Last week’s MBT article focused on evaluating a wine’s ‘nose’ – ie the presence and intensity of aromas. Today we’ll dig into how to evaluate the palate...
Time to put all the details together and take a stab at determining what’s in your glass. Now that you’ve learned how to evaluate the sight, nose and palate of a wine, you can use the information you’ve gathered to...
A Chardonnay masterclass, with everything you need to know to distinguish one country’s styles from another’s. At last tally, Chardonnay was the second most planted white-wine grape in the world after Airén – whose wines, largely unavailable outside Spain, do...
Parsing the wines from the world’s most archetypal Chardonnay appellations – just by paying attention to what’s in your glass. To explore other Chardonnays, see part 6 – Chardonnays of the world. Last week, I went over tips for identifying...
Same grape, different languages. Get to know its markers in its strongholds of Alsace, Italy, Oregon and New Zealand. For all the articles in this series, see our Mission Blind Tasting hub . Thus far, MBTers (Mission Blind Tasting readers)...
How to identify this characterful variety in its various guises, from Germany and elsewhere. Today’s lesson is devoted to one of the wine world’s most cherished varieties: Riesling. It’s also the second most poured white wine variety (after Chardonnay, covered...