Blind tasting exams require students to examine a set of wines in detail and describe the appearance, nose, and palate of each wine being tasted, either verbally or in written form. Students then use these descriptions to make a conclusion about the wine that includes the grape variety or blend of grapes the wine was made from, where the wine was made, the year the wine was produced, and any appropriate legal or quality classification.
Most people agree that making the conclusion is the single most challenging part of blind tasting. In fact, getting the wine right is the one part of the exams that students obsess about to great and not-so-great ends. It’s easy to understand why: if you think about it, coming up with the right grape variety, place, and vintage seems almost impossible given how many wines are made each year.
The good news is that, generally speaking, only classic wines are used for the exams. However, this still leaves several dozen possibilities. Still, determining the right wine requires students to be able to narrow down their options using a decision-making process. Over time, I came up with a system that I called the “decision tree” to help with this process of narrowing down. The decision tree system helped me make reaching a conclusion as straightforward as possible. While the system isn’t fool-proof, it’s allowed me to focus on the most important aspects of a wine without getting distracted by secondary elements and also narrow down the number of possible grape varieties—ultimately helping me identify the wine.
Before going further, there’s a presupposition here: you must put in the work and practice of tasting the classics. A list of these classics is offered in Chapter 6 of my book, Message in the Bottle: A Guide to Tasting Wine. I think it’s important that you learn the classics before expanding your tasting focus. After all, that’s the essence of learning anything. Get the classics down first and then branch out. Now to business: here is my decision tree for making conclusions about white wines.
To begin, long before I get to the conclusion of a white wine, I first note the depth of color. Specifically, I note if the wine in question is deeper in color: say, yellow or even gold. If the latter is true, then I consider the following possible things that could have impacted the color of the wine:
- Age: the wine is older, so I should find the quality of the fruit to be dried, cooked, or preserved. Also, the wine will be less fruity overall with more non-fruit notes, and any earth or mineral more apparent.
- Oak: the wine spent time in new oak (see Question I below)
- Botrytis: the wine will smell like honey/honeysuckle, stone fruit, saffron, button mushroom, and marmalade. The wine may also have residual sugar.
- Skin contact: the wine will smell oxidative with nuts, dried/preserved fruit, dried flowers, dried hay, and dried citrus rind.
I’ll log any of the previous info as appropriate. Next, I’ll examine the nose and palate of the wine in detail. Afterward, when I’m ready to make the conclusion, I’ll ask myself the following questions:
- Does the wine have new oak?
- Does the wine have obvious earth/mineral—or not?
- If the wine doesn’t have new oak, are there impact compounds that can help me identify it?
Here are more details about the process of using the three questions.
Question 1: Does the wine have new oak?
New oak is arguably the most important marker when it comes to blind tasting white wines. While many whites see oak in some form, there’s only a handful of classics that are regularly aged in new oak. That said, if a white wine has perceivable new oak, I’m considering the following possible grapes/wines:
Chardonnay
I’m also looking for: Lees contact and buttery/malo-lactic notes
Additional thoughts:
- If the wine is fruit-dominated and has little earth-mineral and higher alcohol, it’s probably from California, Australia, or another New World country.
- If the wine has pronounced earth-mineral and less fruit, it’s probably from Burgundy and the Cote-de-Beaune.
Viognier
I’m also looking for: Pronounced floral notes (terpenes), lees contact, buttery/malo-lactic notes, and phenolic bitterness (not to be confused with the oak)
Additional thoughts:
- If the wine is fruit-dominated, has little earth-mineral, and higher alcohol, it’s probably from California, Australia, or another non-European country.
- If the wine has obvious earth-mineral and less fruit, it’s probably Condrieu from the Northern Rhône.
Sauvignon Blanc
I’m also looking for: Pyrazines—herbal/vegetal notes, as well as possible lees contact.
Additional thoughts:
- If the wine is fruit-dominated with little earth-mineral and has higher alcohol, it’s probably from California or another New World country.
- If the wine has Mercaptan-reductive-onion skin notes and has earth-mineral, it’s probably Graves Blanc or Pessac-Leognan from Bordeaux.
- If the wine doesn’t have reductive notes but shows pronounced chalky-mineral, it could be an oaked Pouilly-Fumé from the Loire.
Marsanne-Roussanne blend
I’m also looking for: Possible lees contact, high alcohol, and phenolic bitterness.
Additional thoughts:
- If the wine is fruit-dominated and has little earth-mineral, it’s probably from California, Australia, or another New World country.
- If the wine has considerable earth-mineral it’s probably from the Rhône Valley from appellations such as Hermitage Blanc or Crozes-Hermitage Blanc.
Question 2: Does the wine have obvious earth and mineral—or not?
If the wine has earth and mineral, it’s probably from the Old World. Otherwise, if the wine is fruit-dominant and has little earth or mineral, it’s probably from a non-European region.
Question 3: If the wine doesn’t have new oak, are there impact compounds that can help me identify it?
Impact compounds are a subset of aromas and flavors that are important for identifying classic wines. These compounds are derived from several sources including grape chemistry, vineyard environment, and winemaking techniques. Needless to say, knowing impact compounds and their respective grapes/wines are key for students in blind tasting exams. But they are also valuable for industry professionals in judging wine quality and typicity. Here are a handful of impact compounds that I always look for when making a conclusion in a blind tasting.
Pyrazines: If the wine has pyrazines—herbal/vegetal notes, it’s Sauvignon Blanc.
- If the wine shows earth and mineral, it’s probably Sancerre or un-oaked Pouilly-Fumé.
- If the wine is fruit-forward, extremely herbal and vegetal, and has little minerality, it’s probably from New Zealand. It could also be from Chile or South Africa.
- If the wine is fruit-forward with medium pyrazines and little minerality, it could be from California.
Rotundone: If the wine shows white pepper notes from rotundone, it’s Grüner Veltliner from Austria.
- Also look for savory botanical aromas and flavors such as celery, radish, daikon, and lentil as well as lees contact and phenolic bitterness.
TDN: If the wine shows petrol/fusel/gasoline aromas and flavors, it’s Riesling.
- If the wine has abundant fruit, mineral, lower alcohol, high acidity, and residual sugar, it’s from Germany.
- If the wine is dry, complex and has concentrated fruit with earth and mineral notes, it could be a Grosse Lage Riesling from Germany, or a dry Riesling from Alsace or Austria.
Terpenes
Terpenes are floral and sweet citrus notes found in the groups of fully aromatic and semi-aromatic white grapes and wines. My definition for aromatic is a wine that has a strong presence of terpenes. In addition, any of the semi- or fully aromatic wines has phenolic bitterness on the palate due to skin contact during winemaking. Here are lists of fully aromatic and semi-aromatic grapes:
- Fully aromatic grapes
Gewürztraminer: Extremely floral bordering on soapy with a wide range of ripe fruits, possible botrytis notes, and medium phenolic bitterness. High quality wines with earthiness are usually from Alsace and also have high alcohol, moderate acidity, and possible residual sugar. Wines with less earth are usually from California, Australia, or other non-European regions.
Muscat: Similar to Gewürztraminer but with more acidity. Like Gewürztraminer, quality wines with earthiness are typically from Alsace.
Torrontés: Also extremely floral but very fruity with pine and cilantro notes, low minerality, and medium phenolic bitterness.
Viognier: see above
- Semi-aromatic grapes
I call the set of white wines made from semi-aromatic grapes the “evil dwarfs,” as they are easily confused by students. However, the good news is that each grape/wine has distinctive impact compounds and structure levels that can help students to identify it.
Albariño: Floral nose with peachy-sweet citrus fruit, lees contact, mineral, phenolic bitterness, and high acidity.
Chenin Blanc: Ripe and tart fruit, floral, possible botrytis notes and residual sugar, high acidity, and slight phenolic bitterness.
Grüner Veltliner: See above
Pinot Gris: Ripe fruit, slightly floral, possible botrytis notes and residual sugar, elevated alcohol, moderate levels of acidity and phenolic bitterness.
Pinot Grigio: Sometimes bordering on neutral. Otherwise, slightly floral, lees contact, mineral, and slight phenolic bitterness.
Riesling: see above
Botrytis: Botrytis in white wine smells and tastes like ripe stone fruits (peach, apricot, and nectarine), orange marmalade, honey, honeysuckle, toffee, ginger, saffron, and button mushroom. It’s important to note that botrytis influence can just as easily be found on dry wines as opposed to sweet dessert wines. Otherwise, as listed above, I find botrytis as an important marker in Alsace Pinot Gris and Gewürztraminer, dry Riesling from Germany, Alsace, and Austria, Chenin Blanc from the Loire, and Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon blends from Bordeaux.
Look forward to the Red Wine Decision Tree in my next post.
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