Photography by Tom Arena
Blind tasting is at the heart of our ratings and reviews here at Wine Enthusiast. But what does that mean exactly? Don’t worry. Members of the Wine Enthusiast Tasting Panel aren’t putting on blindfolds and fumbling around for wine glasses. (Though that would be fun to watch.)
Here’s how blind tasting works: All bottles we review are cellared for at least three weeks in order to guard against bottle shock. Then a designated tasting coordinator removes corks and strips the bottles of capsules; places them into paper bags to hide the label and shape; and arranges them in peer-group flights of the same or similar styles, varietal compositions, vintages, region and sub-appellations. Each flight has at least five wines.
“It’s not that we’re comparing wines against each other; this process evens out our mentality,” says Anna-Christina Cabrales, Wine Enthusiast’s Tasting Director. “We’re not switching gears all the time. Think of it like a driving stick shift, where you’re not moving straight from first gear to sixth gear. We’re thinking about one region and the particularities of its terroir, which keeps us focused.”
The wines are aerated then poured into the Aria Short Stem Universal glass, which helps maintain consistency in the process. Reviewers blind taste the wine and assess its complexity, structure and how it presents in the glass, then record the score and impression. After scoring, the bag is pulled off and the wine revealed. Wine Enthusiast records the scores in our database before sharing the result with the producer who submitted the wine for review.
Why Blind Tasting Matters
Put simply, it removes many opportunities for bias and levels the playing field for all wines to receive the same analysis without any preexisting expectations.
“We want to be able to give our assessment in a way that allows readers to connect to the wine,” Cabrales says. “What’s great about wine tasting is that we all come from different walks of life and probably have come across a lot of these wines—especially from our regions that we are very passionate about—and we might have some biases. We want to break through that. Our team keeps an open mind.”
What Types of Biases Exist?
If a reviewer knows a wine bottle comes from a highly regarded producer, they might be inclined to look at it more favorably. Similarly, if a wine comes from a producer with a low profile, a reviewer might want to give them a bump in points.
Still, seasoned reviewers will be able to identify the hallmarks of producers they’ve tasted before. “There are little markers in there that might give you hints, it’s almost like knowing your grandmother’s tomato sauce,” Cabrales says. “The point of blind tasting is to pick up on these nuances. Or to be surprised by them.”
Another important bias is price. Our tasters are unaware of price points during our tastings—though bottles of similar price points are rated together—because otherwise, an expensive wine is more likely to be thought of favorably than an inexpensive wine.
Environment can affect scoring, too.
“When I’m enjoying a wine on the beach on a very pretty summer day, that might add to my opinions about the wine,” Cabrales explains. “Maybe there’s garlic in the air that’s affecting my senses at dinner. But when I’m tasting wines in a controlled setting where there are no distractions, I can just really focus on the wine and the wine alone. That keeps it fair.”
Removing variables as a consideration enables our reviewers to focus on what’s in glass and find high-quality, value-driven wines that perform just as well as, if not better than, those for two or three times the price. It’s also what allows us to establish true Best Buys, the center of our Top 100 Best Buys of 2024 list.
Is Blind Tasting the Norm?
You might think blind tasting is standard protocol for wine reviews across the industry, but it isn’t. Some reviewers outside of Wine Enthusiast evaluate wines while sitting with the winemaker or in large-scale, non-blind tastings or in non-blind, smaller tastings. It is important to Wine Enthusiast to adhere to blind tasting protocols and a factor that readers may find important when reading reviews
The effects of expectation can be profound. Blind tasting removes expectation and often yields surprises. And this is part of the reason why our reviewers enjoy this process, too. In a typical year, each reviewer tastes upwards of 2,000 bottles (if not more) of wine for official reviews.
In addition to blind tasting and rating wines that have been submitted for review, the Wine Enthusiast Tasting Panel is also out in the field discovering potentially thousands more wines as they visit wineries and meet with producers. These wines are not being rated, but tasting wines outside of their reviews helps sharpen their skills.
“It’s very important for me to know that my team is in touch with what’s happening in the world of wine,” Cabrales says. “Things are constantly shifting in the world and it’s our responsibility to be aware of changes that might affect the quality of wines.”
In the end, reviewers, like many wine drinkers, are looking for their next thrilling bottle. The blind tasting process helps them here, too.
“Wines are only getting better,” Cabrales says. “Why not allow us to discover new things that we didn’t know exist?”