Blind, Yet Farsighted

A Party with Purpose

Our Blind Panelist tastings are engineered for objectivity.  Conducted at least 4 times per year, the goal is to get a consensus on which wines are Colorado's best.  Of course, this is not a static situation since new wines are constantly being released and others are no longer available.  In fact, there may be wines that are quite as good as the wines  we carry, but for whatever reason, they are not entered into the tastings.  There are several reasons this might happen.  Perhaps there is not enough of a particular wine and all of it is sold by the winery through its tasting room.  Another reason that we might not be able to carry a given wine is that the wine's cost is too high for us to be able to match the winery's retail price.  If you do a little research, you'll find that one of our primary pricing objectives is to offer Our Wines at the same price you would find at the producer's tasting room.  Whatever the reason, know that we'll do our best to keep on finding the best wines that are available to us.

The tastings go like this.  12-20 panelists show up at our tasting room on a partly full stomach.  They are asked beforehand to avoid distracting deodorants, perfumes and hairsprays.  Behind the bar are anywhere from 25-40 wines concealed by brown paper bags.  That's the blind part.  We do this because most of us can't help having certain expectations, associations, even prejudices about this producer or that producer or the look and feel of different labels and packaging.  We want to control those prejudices as much as possible and judge the wines without their influence.

On the tables are 5 to 7 wine glasses.  Before getting started, the referee, usually manager/winemaker Glenn Foster, gives a brief review of the process, including the expectations:

1.  No talking, gesturing or communicating about the wines until after the flight is over and all scoresheets are complete.

2.  Please do spit each wine.  Judging wine requires our elevators to go all the way to the top, and there will be time after the serious part of the tasting to imbibe.

3.  Compare and analyze the wines on their own merits and record your findings on our scoresheet.

The judges are invited to participate free of charge since we are using their good judgement.  We send out invitations to people we know to enjoy a wide variety of wines.  It's often largely a whole new crew that has never done it before, but there are certain judges whose opinions we seek on a regular basis.  We'll conduct a number of "flights" throughout the evening.  Each flight consists of at most 6 or 7 and as few as 2 or 3 wines of similar structure and style.  Usually we'll start with light dry whites like Sauvignon Blanc and other bordeaux whites.  We'll then move on to any dry blush wines, followed by dry reds, then moving to sweet wines, moving from least sweet to the most sweet dessert wines.  If there are any ports or other fortified wines, we'll taste those last, since they are such high alcohol.

Following the last flight, we'll thank our panelists heartily, toast their health, and feed them some delicious foods, and reveal the wines.  So far we've all had a very nice time at each and every tasting.  It's a party with purpose.