A Blind Wine Tasting of California Pinot Noirs

Jun 29th, 09 / 0 Comments /

John & Mike enjoying a glass of Pinot Noir

A group of six friends got together recently to evaluate five top Pinot Noirs of wineries in Northern California. We did the tasting first, and then enjoyed a savory meal, accompanied by our favorite wines of the bunch and the company of good friends Mike, Wendy, John, Linda, and my husband, Steve.

You can buy kits that have everything you need to conduct a blind tasting, but you can accomplish the same thing using some simple materials. Here’s how we did it. We wrapped the five bottles in aluminum foil to mask the labels, then mixed them all up and wrote A-E on each of the bottles using a black marker. It’s helpful to uncork the bottles before you mix them up and mark them because many of the corks are imprinted with name of the winery. I made up a simple wine rating form so we could rate the wines, take notes and keep track of our selections. We opened all the bottles at the same time, then tasted them in order, sharing our thoughts about the color, bouquet and taste.

At a previous blind tasting I made up a playlist of wine-related songs, which is an effective way to set the stage. There are a number of sources, but one of the most comprehensive is from Wine Intro (www.wineintro.com/quotes/songs/). “Red, Red Wine” by UB40 is a great way to start the playlist.

Our group wasn’t too impressed by the first wine we tasted, but it was drinkable, if light and lacking in structure. The second one was much better, but we were holding out on our scores because we still had three wines to taste. The third wine took us aback with a musty, earthy odor that wasn’t inviting, but upon tasting found that it wasn’t as bad as it smelled. The fourth wine hit a home run with everyone. We exclaimed over the rich garnet color, tempting aromas and complex flavors, heavy with berries and a pleasant lingering aftertaste. The last wine we tasted ended the tasting on a strong note, with a split decision. After the points were tallied, here’s how the rankings landed, starting with our favorite selection. There was a distinct difference between the first three and the last two, with a noticeable decline in quality.

Saintsbury Pinot Noir, 2006, Carneros, Napa
Londer Parabolic Pinot Noir, 2007, Anderson Valley
Whitehall Lane Pinot Noir, 2006, Napa Valley
Morgan Pinot Noir, 2007, Santa Lucia Highlands
Cakebread Pinor Noir, 2001, Carneros, Napa Valley

We were a bit surprised by the results as few us were familiar with Saintsbury, which received the most accolades, and also by the poor showing of the Cakebread. This is one of our favorite wineries, and we attribute the results to the age. This was the only wine of the evening that was older than a couple of years, and clearly this Pinot didn’t hold it’s age well. Take those wines out of your cellar and enjoy them before they take on some unappetizing characteristics!

Steve is serious about grilling

After we did one round of tasting we sat down to a lovely summer meal of sweet, white corn, fresh potato salad, tangy cole slaw, and tri-tip grilled to perfection by Steve, accompanied, of course by our selection of Pinots. We worked our way through the wines, in order of our rankings. The blind tasting encouraged us to consider our preferences, unencumbered by labels, reputation, price and marketing, and focus on the pure flavors of the grape.

Sample Wine Tasting Form

Wine A_____________ptsWine B_____________ptsWine C_____________pts

Wine D_____________pts

Wine E_____________pts

Wine F_____________pts


Easy Rating System: I love this wine! 5 pts. I really like this wine. 4 pts. This wine is good. 3 pts. This wine is not that good. 2 pts. I don’t like this wine at all. 1 pt.	Description: Look – Best wines are clear and brilliant Smell – Best wines have intense aromas Taste – Best wines have complex structure and flavors Swallow – Best wines have a flavorful aftertaste that lingers