How to Blind Taste Wine Like a Sommelier

ONE OF THE MOST satisfying achievements of any oenophile is an ability to recognize a wine whose identity is concealed.

Equal parts talent, training and luck, blind tasting is the elusive grail of the professional wine world. I’ve had some great blind-tasting successes—and many failures—but my favorite experience took place 15 years ago at the now-closed Montrachet, in New York.

The restaurant’s then-wine director, Daniel Johnnes (now wine director of Dinex, the Daniel Boulud restaurant group) conducted a game called What’s My Wine? The challenge was quite simple: Mr. Johnnes poured willing diners a glass and asked them to correctly identify the grape, appellation, region, vintage and producer. For each correct answer, Mr. Johnnes deducted 20% from the price of the bottle. Anyone who answered all five correctly got it free.


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