Blind Tasting at Legal Sea Foods

A large percentage of wines that make it onto the Legal Sea Foods wine list are winners of “blind tasting” competitions that we hold in house with key members of our staff. Members of the group, usually 12 to 15 people, are told nothing about the identity of the wines being considered other than the category that they fall under. In other words, we’re given 8 Sauvignon Blancs in a certain price range, we taste them silently, rate them against one another, and then choose our favorites. There are lively discussions afterwards about their comparative merits, but everyone sitting around the table has a vote and, amazingly enough, there are very often clear winners in whatever the category.

 

This is not the way it’s generally done in the restaurant business. Organizing a series of blind tastings (twice a year we generally do 30 to 35 “flights,” or separate categories, with about 8 wines in each) is time consuming, it involves communicating with and arranging the presence of a large number of people, and there are logistical challenges to concealing the identities of the wines. Why then do we do it? Because blind tasting to me is the great equalizer. Well-marketed wines with strong reputations have no greater advantage than do those made by obscure under-capitalized producers. Pretty labels are as irrelevant as fancy pedigrees. Relationships with the owner or commercial agents of the winery do not count. It’s all about focusing attention on what is in the glass; it’s all about whether a group of diverse people, each with their own personal palate and taste, can agree that a particular wine is the best of its style based solely on how it tastes.

 

The reason we go to these lengths is because it’s a fitting complement to our process of selecting only the freshest, finest fish and seafood. It’s a guarantee that we’ve scoured the market and found the best Pinot Grigio we could to pour for you at the most desirable price, the finest Malbec or Riesling. We focus primarily on wines that are compatible with specific menu items. The process gets our staff, including our culinary teams, fully engaged. By teaching participants how to taste and involving them in the selection process, we feel it enriches conversations with guests about each wine once it appears on our list. We don’t rely on third parties to authenticate the wine’s quality, or the published opinions of journalists who submit their ratings to periodicals. Finally, one of the greatest benefits of tasting blind is that we’ve discovered a number of amazing wines that were completely off our radar screen. Ultimately though the only proof is in the results.

 

My belief in the validity of this process stems from all the studying I did years ago prior to passing the Master of Wine certification, which is an exam involving identification of 36 wines tasted blind over a course of three days. The exam requires a reasoned assessment of which grape variety each wine is made from, its country and region of origin, the type of climate it enjoys, the production and aging techniques that are used, the intended quality level, and its age. Not necessarily the most enjoyable 6 hours I’ve ever spent with several glasses of wine in front of me but among the most challenging and rewarding.

 

Practicing blind tasting led me personally to a much deeper understanding of what wine is and how it’s put together. When you already know the wine’s name, when you’re familiar with the reputation of the producer, for instance, or the region, or the grape variety’s typical characteristics, your expectations of what it’s supposed to taste like inevitably influence your impressions. In other words, if it’s supposed to be delicious and we don’t like it, we question ourselves. In our blind tastings where wines from well known producers are included the response is always interesting. In some cases these highly regarded wines win and in others the feeling is that emperor has no clothes. The Stags Leap “Karia Vineyard” Chardonnay, 2006, for instance, so far outdistanced the competition in a tasting of ultra-premium oak aged Chardonnays, most of which were critically acclaimed, that it was an almost unanimous pick. Its delicious buttered brioche, green apple, toasted pine nuts with tarragon notes made it stand head and shoulders above many of the other minimalist wines in its group. In other cases, even some mainstays of the list for a number of years have not fared well versus when tasted objectively and occasionally we’ve had to remove wines from our program after evaluating a current vintage that did not quite measure up. Recently some very popular New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs changed style in a single vintage, going from bone dry to slightly tropical, and the panel did not approve.

 

Here are some of the “discovery zone” highlights, wines that we’ve picked out at blind tastings that have generated excitement recently. In a field of a dozen Southern Italian reds, the value priced Villa Pozzi, Nero d’Avola, 2006 from Sicily was a landslide winner. Full of dark smoky ultra-ripe berry fruit, with moderate tannins and a spicy finish, it’s a great quaffing wine with a nice long raisiny finish that always invites ordering a second glass. The Tilia Malbec 2007 from Mendoza blew away a very strong field of Argentine competitors with its concentrated dark plum and chocolate richness and it is a two time winner, as the current vintage followed up a very strong 2006. The renowned Louis Jadot Gevrey Chambertin 2005 from Burgundy was the class of its field, with scents of Portobello and woodsy fruit, mocha and almond fruit flavors and impressive length. Among the white wines, a 2007 Serge Saupin, Muscadet de Sevre et Maine sur lies, impressed with its sea spray and tangy apple notes and long minerally finish, while our most recent Rose winner, the Crios 2007, from Susana Balbo in Argentina, (another consecutive vintage winner) is a lightly spicy soft mouthful of red cherry herb-accented fruit. Finally, in the sparkling wine category, our blind tastings yielded a winner in the Cava category: La Poema, a Brut-style multi-vintage blend with aromas of lemon and apple, and a tart dry citric finish.

 

Most of these wines are in what I would call the “value” category. All told the tastings that brought them to our attention involved about 250 hours worth of work, but we’re hoping you agree that it was well worth it.

 

Thanks,

Sandy Block