So what do you think the paper was trying to show, Lum? Not sure how
the tasting of these '72 and '73 wines fits in with the statements
made above that all wines are starting to taste the same now - or are
you just commenting on Andy's statement that he could tell different
varieties apart?


"Lum" > wrote in message >...

> Andy,
> You might enjoy looking at the following paper. It describes an experiment
> where a trained panel blind tasted and attempted to identify several 1972
> and 1973 varietal wines.
>
> Here are some of the results for 1973 vintage wines ...... Muscat (76%
> correct
> identifications), Riesling (34%), Colombard (26%), Chardonnay (26%),
> Sauvignon Blanc (18%), Gewürztraminer (6%), Cabernet Sauvignon (39%), Petite
> Sirah (32%), Pinot Noir (32%), Zinfandel (31%), Merlot (11%).
>
> In all, fifteen white wines and eleven red wines were tasted, so the
> probability of just guessing correctly would be about 1 in 15 (7%) for the
> white wines and 1 in 11 (9%) for the red wines. Surprising results,
> especially since the tasting was done by a _trained_ panel.
>
> Winton, W. Ough, C.S. and Singleton, V.L. - "Relative distinctiveness of
> varietal wines estimated by the ability of trained panelists to name the
> grape variety correctly" - Am. L. Enol. Vit. 26 (1975) 5.