Tasting Psycholgy

by Mark Deamer

I was recently set the task of arranging a blind tasting of Rieslings on behalf of a New York Wine trade board. This was the first time I had been at the tiller of such an official tasting, having taken part as a taster in probably hundreds over the years.  So I teamed up with Imbibe magazine for the coverage and went about putting the event together.

  Without going into the mania that overcame me whist sourcing the wines, I can tell you that having gone through the process I have a whole new respect for Chloe and the team of event managers at imbibe. Anyway eventually the wines were sourced, the venue booked and the tasters invited. All that was left was to prepare the tasting sheets and bag up the wines.

 The tasting sheets were put together by Chloe, after I furnished her with the tasting order and the prices. These were professionally done with the wines numbered and the prices listed on both bag and tasting sheet. However this is when I felt the need to tinker.

 Not knowing that it was Imbibe's standard policy to have the prices listed on view to the tasters (I thought as long as they had them for the magazine write up it was fine) I decided to erradicate all evidence of the wine prices. Instead, before the tasting started I gave the tasters a briefing; The wines were all Riesling, all less than 10 grams of residual sugar and all costing between £7.50 and £30.00. After giving a breakdown of the countries of origin and the range of vintages the tasting was ready to begin. This was greeted with much wailing and gnashing of teeth by Clinton, but after explaining my rationale and apologising we came to a compramise.

 So let me share with you my rationale. I think the most prejudicial piece of information you can give in a tasting is price. Whether an expensive bottle of wine gears you up to expect greatness that you may feel saying otherwise says more about your tasting ability than it does about the wine. Or disappointment where you are already looking for reasons to bring it down a peg or two. The same can be said for the inexpensive wine. I mean you just don't expect a £8. bottle of wine to be better than a £20. bottle. And I believe we all subconsciously adhere our little biases when we see a price.

So I wanted the wines just to be judged on technical merit. To get back to thinking definition of fruit + Structural balance x complexity = quality. And after agreeing with Clinton that I would announce prices at the end so the tasters could then give us a second mark for value for money the tasting commenced.

 So back to the Psychology of tasting. The room took on a different air. With just the removal of one tiny piece of information there seemed to be a heady mix of a little fear, a hint of reservedness and general intrigue. Perhaps because I wasn't tasting, (knowing I am one of the more opinionated/vocal tasters) there was definately a sense of more individual contemplation, less of the group discussion mentality. Indeed after the tasting I was talking with Clinton about my rationale, and whether he thought it had any validation, and he brought up a point that actually hit a nerve, as I find myself guilty of doing this. Clinton said when you have a price you can find yourself unwittingly saying things that unduely influence the tasters around you. Something as simple as barking out 'That's great value' (mia culpa) or 'that's not worth the money' (also guilty) and unless you have somebody particularly strong willed the people arround you will fall into line. The dreaded power of suggestion. Infact Clinton reckons when he comes round to transcribing notes after tastings he has a fair idea who has been tasting with who just by the similarities in tasting notes.

 I haven't seen the final notes of the tasting but it will be interesting to see if they do reflect more individualism. The other thing to glean from some pretty proud and relieved chest beating at the end of the tasting was that some of our tasters seemed to be saying that their initial marks for quality did not have to be tinkered with much when it came to giving marks for value for money, and if this is the case then I think that paints a pretty good picture for the people that work within our industry. I look forward to seeing the results and thank all those involved. I quite enjoyed sitting on the sidelines.