BC Wine vs The World - Taste Challenge 2022 (with the amazing Shanyn Ward, DipWSET)

When it comes to tasting wine - blind tastings rule!

If you love wine and you haven't participated in a blind tasting yet - now is the time! The reason it matters is because ultimately in your wine journey, your goal is to be able to determine whether the wine in the glass is good wine, representative of a place and a variety that is a classic expression. Being a wine nerd includes having the ability to assess wine, a skill that makes all the other wine marketing noise silent. Tasting wines blind removes bias. It's a great way to develop your sensory skills. Plus there's a bonus - its creates new pathways in the brain (science says so). IMHO building reflexive brain function is one way to stay young and active. 

When I got to Kelowna in June and starting paddling with Shanyn Ward, DipWSET, we thought it would be fun to host a couple of wine tastings in partnership with the amazing Matt Stewart from Staples Studio in Kelowna. With the venue in place, all we needed was a few winery sponsors and some online promotion. ​

Taste Challenge 2022 

Foundations for our Blind Tasting
There were four stations with two bottles each - both bottles in brown paper bags. Each station was dedicated to a grape variety. We asked tasters to identify grape variety and to identify which wine was the BC Wine. 

How Hard Was It?
You could easily have flipped a coin and had some success but those who signed up for the Taste Challenge 2022 the fun and test was detecting aromas and flavours in a search for the answers to two questions: what is the grape variety and which bottle is BC wine. Truly, this is a wine lovers game.
 
What did we learn?
One of the standout characteristics of BC wine is fresh acidity. Most people second guess their decisions. First impressions are often right. A good way to process blind tasting information is to identify "what this is not", and getting clear right by narrowing down the field of grape varieties.  

The Result

Overwhelming feedback was that these winelovers appreciated using their skills - whether schooled or not - to assess wine in the glass and recording their decisions. There were a few that guessed all BC wines correctly. Felix Egerer, viticulturist at Tantalus Vineyards was our top scorer. Everyone was a winner and prizes were distributed in both session to the top five results. Thank you to Matt Stewart from Staples for providing the space as well as prizing for a free one month trial for two lucky participants, to Olivia from BC Wine Shop who represents Reidel Glassware in the province (like the needle) for beautiful glassware prizes, to Metro Liquor for gift cards and Experience Wine Tours for a complimentary tour for 2. Thanks to Shanyn Ward, DipWSET for sharing the stage with me and to all of you who participated.

Conclusion

There were three things that stood out from my perspective: 1.) comparative tasting experiences are not common, which leads to the idea that we should do more of these events; 2.) developing sensory awareness to aromas and flavours is a practice - so keep practicing; and 3.) tasting confidence comes from tasting experience - so join a tasting group. "Be a life long learner" is a perfect mantra for ongoing wine appreciation. If you haven't already, please sign up for my newsletter and get a free copy of "Good Wine & How to Find it". 

If you were able to attend our summer events, thank you so much. I hope you found the tasting valuable to your learning and a fun social event too. Please leave your comments below or message me directly. I'll look forward to seeing you soon.