The Auswine Forum

For wine drinkers wishing to stay completely in the dark about the wines they are tasting, Riedel Crystal has made it possible. http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Daily/News/0,1145,2190,00.html

Ric

Had to check it wasn't the first of April - that is really over the top !

regards
Chris

ChrisH wrote:Ric

Had to check it wasn't the first of April - that is really over the top !

regards
Chris

Chris,

and that it had not been written by some nutter (bad pun intended) called Murray Almond.

Riedel's launch of an all-black glass is hardly pioneering, although attaching a $59usd definately is. There are black, or very deep blue, glasses available in other countries, for this type of evaluation.

This brings to mind the so-called "Davis Test", which is a quasi urban myth about Ann Noble's Sensory Wine Course at UC Davis (Ann Noble developed the "Wine Aroma Wheel").

According to the lore, which was popularised by "New Yorker" columnist Calvin Trillin "The Davis Conundrum takes its name from a wine-tasting test that I'm told is sometimes given at the highly regarded department of oenology at the University of California at Davis. It turns out that under blind-test circumstances the tasters, some of them professional wine connoisseurs, are often unable to tell red wine from white wine"

However UC Davis clarified this as being a substantial exaggeration of fact. To quote from [URL=http://www-ucdmag.ucdavis.edu/fall02/end_notes.html
]the UC Davis Site[/URL] :

That same New Yorker food issue contains an article by humorist Calvin Trillin, who set out to investigate the so-called “Davis Test”—a purported blind tasting of red and white wines that supposedly proved even experts can’t always tell the difference between the two. Trillin came to the source: UC Davis’ Ann Noble, professor of viticulture and enology and expert on sensory science, whose wine aroma wheel has helped scores of novices differentiate between a Pinot Noir and a Zinfandel. Noble’s verdict: The “Davis Test” is an urban myth. The test she gives her students asks them to identify the varietal by use of smell alone. “The minute you put it in your mouth,” she told Trillin, “it’s game over.”
however there is a slight sting in the tale:
To prove her point, Noble offered Trillin two black glasses, one filled with red wine, the other with white, for him to taste. He got it wrong.

As to the glass, I'd be interested in having a couple of all black ISO tasting glasses, for a reasonable price. Asking "is it a red or white" would be a great first question in the Options Competition.

Murray

Murray,
what about some spray paint, they come in cans. Cheap and easy.
MM.

...or a blinfold for the taster !

regards
Chris

ChrisH wrote:...or a blinfold for the taster !

Chris,
We tried that, you need to supply bibs as well.