Talented Amateur will be organizing a few subscriber-only blind tastings in the coming year. Most of my subscribers do not often participate in blind tastings of wines, so I wanted to share what they will be about. I encourage all of my subcribers to attend one or all of them. They will be a chance for us to unplug from our usual activities, and focus our full attention, and our senses, on a few wines for an hour or so. Will be fun, too.

• No blindfolds will be involved*. The wines will be served in unmarked carafes, so we will all be blind to what type of wine we are tasting. This takes out any bias that the label, bottle shape, grape variety, etc. imparts on us, and give us the freedom to focus on what we are sniffing and sipping. I’ll provide you with note cards, pencils, etc. to record your impressions and thoughts. In addition to any specific notes, you will be asked to provide an overall assessment of the wine and how much you like it.
• The tastings will be a leisurely stroll through four to six different wines, not a marathon of dozens. I hope the wine tasting portion will be an hour or less. Talented Amateur will be providing some of the wines, and participating tasters will have some opportunities to bring a wine to include in the tastings, too. Details on each tasting will go out a week or two before the tasting.
• The first part of each tasting will be about the wine, with minimal talking and chatter. Learning to taste and appreciate wines requires focus. When I’m at a social event and am served a particularly good wine, I often feel I have short-changed the wine by not giving it 100% of my attention. I’m hoping we can all do that together for the first part of these events.
• The second part of each tasting is more about talking and socializing. After we have all tasted the wines and written down our impressions, all will be revealed, some food will be provided and there will be plenty of time to trade notes on the wines, come back for seconds on wines we really liked, and to socialize.
• The tastings are subscriber-only. A part of each of these events is social, but the common thread of the gatherings will be enjoying wine and learning about it. If you have a date or a +1 you’d like to bring, let me know in advance, and encourage them to subscribe.
• Invites will go out by email, a month or so before each event. If you are a subscriber, and have not received an email, reach out to: talentedamateur.bg@gmail.com
• The results of the blind tastings will be shared with all subscribers in blog posts. A few themes consistent with this blog will explored. In the process of doing research on expert or crowd-sourced scoring of wines, I come across wines with widely divergent scores–some of the wines are included in the tastings will help to “settle a score”. I have also spent an embarassing amount of money buying wines that expert reviewers tell me are amazingly complex and nuanced–some of the wines included in the tastings will test my ability (and yours, too) to distinguish these wines from less costly, more widely available wines–I’ll call that the “TJ Test”.

*I have heard great things about truly blindfolded wine tastings held at Mondavi Center, and my spouse has promised me one of them. I’ll report back after we attended one.