Blind vs. sighted ... does it really matter?

[Glenn E.]

Glenn wrote:

I freely admit that I am very susceptible to label bias. If I know which is which, I'm virtually guaranteed to "like" my known favorites better than the rest.

Didn't you mean this, Glenn?: I freely admit that I am very susceptible to label bias. If I know which is which is my bottle, I'm virtually guaranteed to "like" it better than the rest.

LOL yes that is very true also! In fact I thought I'd posted that very thing somewhere in one of these threads. Which brings me to my next post...

[Glenn E.]

A fairer way to do this would be to open up one 750 ml and pour half of it into another random empty bottle and sticking a coded label on the bottom of it and not letting anyone else at the tasting know which is which. Glenn uses a similar technique which is very effective.

I did this for the Ruby Reserve Taste-Off because, frankly, I'm a little too observant. If I can see even the top of the bottle poking out of Roy's blind tasting bags, there's a decent chance that I'll pick up some clue about the identity of the bottle.

Luckily I'm also forgetful, so for the Taste-Off I decanted the first bottle into a decanter, then each succeeding bottle into the previous bottle taking careful notes along the way. Roy showed up about halfway through the process and at first was very concerned until he saw the detailed decanting notes. At the end I poured the decanter into the last bottle and turned my notes over to my wife for safekeeping. By the time I'd done 10 or 12 bottles or whatever it was, I had no clue what was in any of them!

That gave us the fairest possible evaluation short of the tasting actually being double blind. No one had any idea what any individual bottle contained. We used Roy's blind tasting bags anyway just to hide the labels, but given the mixed-up contents that was just an extra layer of protection from label bias.

It worked beautifully, so I used the technique again for the 20-year old Tawny Taste-Off.

[Glenn E.]

So do you care if a critic is evaluating the next great vintage of Port, blind or sighted from cask samples or just finished bottles? (say ... 2011)

So here's where I throw a wrench into the works.

I firmly believe that the only way to get an unbiased evaluation at a tasting is to do it blind. If you know what you're tasting in each glass, you're going to be biased to some degree. That said...

I also know how you do your evaluations. I've see how thorough you are, how much time you take with each Port, and how much care you take with your notes. Your evaluations aren't the same as the tastings we all enjoy... they're much more.

Given that much time and care, I don't think that label bias is as likely. Sure, you might initially be fooled by label bias on some Port that you were really expecting to shine, but by day 4 after 10+ hours evaluating each Port, I don't think that bias is going to hold. I've seen you revise scores up and down over your evaluation period. Some of that is due to the Port's performance over 4 days, but I think some of it is also adjusting for label bias. Something you thought was going to be outstanding has turned out to be merely excellent. Or something you thought was just going to be average has turned out to be really good. In a single evening "snapshot" tasting, there just isn't time to completely adjust for an initial impression that might be biased, but over 4 days that bias just isn't going to hold up to repeated examination.

Now if only we could convince all wine critics to spend as much time evaluating every wine that they rate!

[Roy Hersh]

The funny thing is, that when people saw the squat bottle and still assumed it was Kopke and other such shennanigans with other bottles that were nearly as distinctive ... er, that's all folks.

[Al B.]

So do you care if a critic is evaluating the next great vintage of Port, blind or sighted from cask samples or just finished bottles? (say ... 2011)

That's an interesting question. In both cases, the blend you're tasting should be the same - the final blend approved by the IVDP. Cask samples are likely to have been bottled by hand or to have been bottled some time before the main bottling run. Hopefully they will have recovered from their bottling shock by the time you taste them. If you taste just finished bottles alongside the cask samples, you are likely to be experiencing one with bottle shock and one without.

I never really appreciated just how much difference it can make to a port for it to have a few weeks to recover from bottle shock until I saw the amazing transformation that the Vesuvio Capela 2007 went through as it morphed from a relatively weak performer compared to its Vesovio sibling just after bottling to become a stonking great bruiser towards the end of 2009. Such a dramtic change in such a short time!

So I think in an ideal world I would prefer you to taste settled bottles of the 2011 vintage, but I would be quite happy if you compared cask samples of everything side-by-side, blind and earlier in the year.

PS - don't forget you've promised to drop by the UK for the weekend of October 11-13!

[Roy Hersh]

Alex my friend. That is carved in stone, unless I am unlucky to be hit by a bolt of lightning or drown in the Douro with pockets filled with gold coins. I'd prefer the latter if I have no choice. But otherwise, you can count me in for sure.