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Blind tasting
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The deductive method step by step, then twelve benchmark grapes to practice it on.
New to wine 189 min 24 steps About Blind Tasting: Systematic Deduction
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Start with the first Wine 101 chapter: the five-step method and the vocabulary that makes it work.
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Blind Tasting: Systematic Deduction
Then the discipline itself: without the label, you work from sensory evidence through a systematic protocol, moving through sight, nose and palate.
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WSET Systematic Approach to Tasting (SAT): Appearance, Nose, Palate, Conclusions
The WSET version, the Systematic Approach to Tasting, organised under four headings: Appearance, Nose, Palate and Conclusions.
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Nose Assessment: Condition, Intensity, and Development
On the nose, the WSET Level 3 SAT asks three questions: is the wine clean, how intense are the aromas, and how developed are they?
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Primary Aromas (Fruit, Floral, Herbal, Spice)
Primary aromas come from the grape and alcoholic fermentation, and the grape-derived ones are why varieties smell distinct from one another.
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Secondary Aromas: Lees, Malolactic and Oak
Secondary aromas come from post-fermentation winemaking: yeast lees, malolactic conversion and oak, with the buttery note of malolactic linked to diacetyl.
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Tertiary Aromas / Bouquet: The Aromas of Maturation
Tertiary aromas develop with age in barrel or bottle: leather, tobacco, dried fruit.
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Then the palate's framework: sweetness, acidity, tannin, alcohol, body and finish.
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A closer look at tannin, the drying, gripping part of a red wine's structure, rated from low to high.
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How heavy or light a wine feels in the mouth, built mainly from alcohol and extract and scored from light to full in systematic tasting.
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Alcohol as a Structural Element
How alcohol shapes a wine's warmth, weight, and sense of sweetness, and how tasters judge it in the glass.
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Finish: how long flavor lingers after swallowing, one of the four quality pillars in the WSET framework.
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Rule out faults before judging quality, from cork taint to Brettanomyces and volatile acidity.
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Court of Master Sommeliers Deductive Tasting Method
The Court of Master Sommeliers' deductive method builds the evidence into a climate and grape hypothesis, then a final conclusion.
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Now the benchmark reds, starting with Cabernet Sauvignon: high tannins, firm acidity and dark cassis fruit.
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Pinot Noir at the other end: thin skins, moderate to high acidity and low tannins.
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Syrah, where cool-climate examples carry a peppery note from rotundone.
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Nebbiolo, high in both tannin and acid.
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Sangiovese: vibrant acidity, firm tannins and red cherry.
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Tempranillo, relatively low in natural acidity, developing leather and tobacco with bottle age.
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The whites begin with Riesling: naturally high acidity and a petrol note with bottle age.
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Sauvignon Blanc: crisp acidity and herbaceous aromas driven by methoxypyrazines and thiols.
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Chardonnay, whose relatively neutral fruit makes it responsive to oak aging and malolactic fermentation.
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Chenin Blanc, high in acid and made in styles from bone-dry to botrytized sweet.
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