A few years ago we decided to host a Pinot Noir party with a small group of friends. This was to be a blind tasting of six Pinot Noirs from around the world. We included a couple of imported Pinots and the rest were varied from around the US. At the time none of us were wine professionals in any sense of the term, but we knew about blind tastings and wanted to give it a try.

I took time to sew several opaque cloth bags to disguise the bottle labels. The bags were large enough to cover the top of the bottles since I had read that some professional wine tasters if given the opportunity to see the wine bottle closure would be able to identify who produced the wine.

I didn’t want to take any chances, after all whoever identified the correct number of places the Pinots were produced would win a bottle of Pinot Noir wine!

The results of the “contest” were dismal in terms of identifying where the Pinots were made. However one participant was able to identify four out of the six wine locations. Although not an avid wine drinker, he was so proud of winning that bottle of wine!

Our guests also identified the Pinot they liked best. The Oregon Pinot Noir won easily over Pinot Noirs from California, France, Australia, Virginia and Maryland.

Now that I have brought back old memories, perhaps we should host another blind Pinot Noir tasting!

Cheers, Kathy