Blind Tasting for Beginners
a wine extravaganza
What began as a rather innocuous idea quickly transformed into an all-day affair. I can’t speak for my readers, but this spring has had a deluge of events. Every weekend, it’s been either a birthday, a bachelorette party, a trip, or something of the sort. So, I don’t really know what I was thinking when I suggested hosting a wine tasting night last Saturday – one of the only quiet weekends Liam and I have had in months. Perhaps I thought it would be tame, which, looking back, was a naïve thought, but I knew it would definitely be fun. Liam, having recently passed his level 2 wine course, had numerous bottles in the wine fridge and assured me he would take care of all things wine. I’m a casual enjoyer, and I do not have nearly the depth of knowledge he possesses. But this is not meant to dissuade anyone from having a tasting night. Anyone from a small sipper to a serious oenophile can and should do one. My hope is that after reading this post, you’ll feel inspired and have the necessary tools to host your own.
Happy to let Liam take the lead with the wine, I focused on the menu, knowing I wanted to serve a variety of dishes as well as the typical cheese and meat offerings. Although it is not yet tomato season, I chose to make bruschetta, tried my hand at deviled eggs for the first time, and recreated a popular Spanish snack of potato chips and prosciutto. The latter has been popping up on my Instagram feed from restaurants like Ernesto’s and The Snail, but I must give credit where credit is due – my sister Maxine first served this at an aperitivo hour at her apartment months ago, and I’ve been waiting to recreate it since.
For the bruschetta to have any flavor, I visited the Prospect Park farmers’ market to get fresh cherry tomatoes and a baguette. While perusing, Cato Corner’s stall of various cheeses caught my eye, and I also snatched up an aged cheddar adjacent block. At home, I chopped the tomatoes, heavily salted them, and let them drain for at least an hour. In the meantime, I toasted the fresh baguettes to a crisp and heated olive oil with minced garlic. Don’t fret if you overtoast the bread; the tomato mixture will have enough juice to soften even the hardest of bites. What you do want to do is rub each slice with raw garlic as they come out of the oven. Toss the tomatoes with the olive oil and garlic, add in fresh basil, and season to taste with salt and pepper. You can make hours in advance and let the flavors really marinate in the fridge before serving.
For the deviled eggs, I went rogue and decided to just boil, cool, peel, scoop out the innards, combine with mayo, mustard, apple cider vinegar, salt, and pepper, and refill the halves with the yolk mixture. No real recipe, just a mish-mash of things I’d read online. What I did not stop to ponder was how many eggs I needed. I completely blanked and forgot that you split them in half – meaning I boiled twenty-two eggs for a total of forty-four…let this be a warning to you. For toppings, I pulled out my handy kitchen tweezers and layered pickled red onions on one-third of the eggs, diced cornichons on another third, and sprinkled the last third with paprika. I thoroughly enjoyed all three different versions.
The rest of the food was set up easily; I layered the potato chips and prosciutto minutes before guests arrived and got the cheese out as well. Maxine was kind enough to bring sliced mortadella and soppressata. While I immersed myself in food prep, Liam was busy paper-bagging the eight wines for the night and numerically labeling them. As our guests arrived, we got down to business, and he began pouring tastings for everyone. The main purpose of the night was for everyone to discover what they like about wine without any preconceived notions. Hiding the labels allowed us to focus on the taste without knowing how expensive or what type of wine we were sipping. It was also a judgment-free zone – the descriptors of smell and taste ranged from sour patch kid to old sock. We wanted to take the pretentiousness out of the experience and let people say the first thought that came to mind. After the first four, all of which were whites, we ranked them and moved on to the reds. At the end of all eight, we each gave our final rankings and guessed which bottle was the most expensive. And then came the fun part – the reveals!
Liam had selected grapes for us from all over the world. Three continents were represented! He also included his epiphany wine: Ransom, an Oregon pinot noir. Other standouts were a California Chardonnay, a German Riesling, and an Australian Cabernet Sauvignon. There were some surprises: the most expensive was the least liked. I ranked the Chardonnay over the Riesling. Then we all began pouring larger servings of our favorites. Hours later, we surprised ourselves by pulling an additional bottle or two out from the fridge. I personally had not thought we’d make it this far. But I guess good conversation and good wine make for a perfect pairing. Finally, around midnight, everyone was feeling the effects of the alcohol, and we called it a night, having finished nine bottles between six of us. The goal of the evening was for everyone to explore wines they wouldn’t typically order and, hopefully, find a new favorite. I’d say it was a success.