If going just by nose, I would have been convinced a Grenache based was a Pinot last night. Fortunately, the texture and flavor put me back on track.
I’m fairly certain that if you tasted Santa Barbara County Pinot and Grenache, it would be a very tough problem in many cases . . . .
nope not terroir, but i got a good sniffer for bs.
After smelling 400+ Oregon Pinot’s. I’m usually pretty good at picking them out of most lineups. I find that the first impression, the nose of a wine is the best telltale of it’s origin. Not the palate.
Sometimes. Sometimes not.
LMOA
You tryin’ to say your nose is running wild here?
I think it also depends on what one means by blind. It’s much easier if 4 glasses are placed in front of you and you know the wines just not the order. I’ve had people bring me a 50 yo glass of wine with no clue at all to origin or age, and sometimes served in a different glass than you would expect. Try a medium bodied, mature Bordeaux served in a Burgundy glass or vice versa. Sometimes easy and sometimes very difficult. Even with a young wine, I would have a tough time telling a Musigny from a Bonnes Mares as David said above among countless other examples. I think in general, someones confidence in tasting blind is probably inversely proportional to their overall experience.
OK - I’m revisiting this now and thanks for the responses! In a way, my confidence in picking out a Musigny in a broad line up is waning, but I’ll share why I think I can and hopefully answer some of the points raised in the thread…
For starters, my epiphany wine was an 1988 Vogue Musigny (back in 2000 or 2001)… I sometimes wish I never drank it because that wine convinced me that I needed to start collecting. On top of that, this Musigny was the very 1st Burgundy I remember ever drinking. It was a surreal experience, and my nose probably spent an hour in that glass because I had never smelled anything like it. It was mind boggling the array of smells that came from that glass, and to be quite honest, I’m not sure I’ve ever had the same experience with any bottle of wine, so David Strange, yes, it has been ‘downhill’ but it started incredibly high so not all has been lost!
On the question of experience - have I tried a broad array of burgs? No, and that inexperience is one of the reasons I decided to float the question. Furthermore, I haven’t tried every producer of Musigny, but I do think the ones I have tried (Vogue, Mugnier, Drouhin, Jadot, Prieur, Vougeraie), all share a signature that I can and have identified blind, (single blind) and with no more than 5 different bottles on the table. So, jhowe, to your point, my confidence probably wouldn’t be so high if you had 50 reds in front of me and said, “go find the Musigny” - although my naive confidence would welcome the challenge!!!
I find it an interesting question, if people can lock onto a terroir or not. I assure you I couldn’t do it with Bordeaux, or the Rhone or California etc, but Musigny to me is quite unique.
Thanks for the responses!
TK
Todd, I apologize if my comment above about experience came off a bit snarky. I really didn’t mean it that way. I would include myself in that group as I used to be more confident than I am now. I certainly believe that someone could hone their skills at identifying a particular vineyard like Musigny, and pick it out of a small lineup single blind. Whether that is recognizing the terroir or not I couldn’t say. I was referring more to recognizing those qualities with a glass when you have no information at all like origin, age, etc. That’s a lot more difficult.
I’m just curious as to how well you’ve researched this to come up with 80%?? Are you saying that you think you could blind call “Musigny” 80% of the time when smelling a broad range of vintages and producers? If it’s true that is incredibly impressive.
I certainly think that, as others have said, many people largely over-estimate their ability to identify wines blind. That would refer to being able to taste the wines as well (not just smell). To me calling Amarone, or NZ Sauv Blanc would be much easier than any particular vineyard, even with burgs. Even so, personally I doubt that at a blind Sauv Blanc tasting, I would have an 80% rate in picking the OZ wines. I recently did a blind tasting up at Phelps with one of the staff involving 8 of their wines. I did the best of anyone in the group, but was mortified that I’d embarass myself and peg something like pinot for syrah. After a lot of wine drinking and learning, blind tasting is still very humbling.
jhowe -No offense taken at all and compared to other responses, its not snarky at all!!! I didn’t mean to sound arrogant or cocky with the setup statement and sometimes text doesn’t translate the true point. My primary motive was to find out how confident I should be in this assessment. Although 80% doesn’t sound humble, the real point is that I think I’ve got a lock on that terroir on smell. I think its distinct in the say I can tell the difference between basil and thyme. However, I’ve got a long way to go as many very experienced oenophiles who I respect greatly on this board are skeptical about my claim, and that’s what I wanted to find out, if its common or not.
I am surprised by this, however… Where I stand now, and with the limited experience I have, I’m in a place where Musigny smells distinct. Getting back to the 80% rule, if you lined up 50 random red wines and said, go find the Moose, I do think I could find it with 10 chances. Who knows - maybe i’m crazy.
john gonzales - not well researched at all… just a ballpark figure. See above. Also, I’m awful at Bordeaux wine tasting (on 2 occassions in 2010, I went 0-4 on Bordeaux), equally as bad with the Rhone and California, and only slightly better with a Cali chard vs. white burgundy chard. Not scientific, just your basic single blind tastings with friends. Musigny, however, is much difference. Much better results and it makes me think I’ve got a ‘lock’ on that aroma. who knows- time will tell…
The thing I now wonder is how dependent we are on having the label frame the experience…
I thought bordeaux and then along came that 1991 Dominus. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}