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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 wine171 min24 stepsAbout Blind Tasting: Systematic Deduction
Start with the first Wine 101 chapter: the five-step method and the vocabulary that makes it work.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
Tertiary Aromas / Bouquet: The Aromas of Maturation
Tertiary aromas develop with age in barrel or bottle: leather, tobacco, dried fruit.
Then the palate's framework: sweetness, acidity, tannin, alcohol, body and finish.
A closer look at tannin, the drying, gripping part of a red wine's structure, rated from low to high.
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.
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.
Finish: how long flavor lingers after swallowing, one of the four quality pillars in the WSET framework.
Rule out faults before judging quality, from cork taint to Brettanomyces and volatile acidity.
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.
Now the benchmark reds, starting with Cabernet Sauvignon: high tannins, firm acidity and dark cassis fruit.
Pinot Noir at the other end: thin skins, moderate to high acidity and low tannins.
Syrah, where cool-climate examples carry a peppery note from rotundone.
Nebbiolo, high in both tannin and acid.
Sangiovese: vibrant acidity, firm tannins and red cherry.
Tempranillo, relatively low in natural acidity, developing leather and tobacco with bottle age.
The whites begin with Riesling: naturally high acidity and a petrol note with bottle age.
Sauvignon Blanc: crisp acidity and herbaceous aromas driven by methoxypyrazines and thiols.
Chardonnay, whose relatively neutral fruit makes it responsive to oak aging and malolactic fermentation.
Chenin Blanc, high in acid and made in styles from bone-dry to botrytized sweet.
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