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The first time I witnessed someone blind a wine, I was but a green reporter wandering around New York City looking for stories. Sommeliers Jean-Luc Le Dû (RIP) and Yannick Benjamin were sitting around Le Dû's West Village shop talking and blind tasting, challenging one other on what one bottle or another might be. One of them sipped, swirled, tasted, and named the grape, country, region, vineyard, cuvée AND vintage. (It must have been a Bordeaux—I vaguely remember the term "first growth" getting thrown around.) The spot-on declaration seemed like a magic trick, uncanny and impossible.
I have yet to blind anything so specifically beyond grape, country, and region, but I love the challenge and talking about how we might go about blinding, say an aligoté or an albariño from California. At the shop, we have a Wednesday tradition founded by our team member Cassandra Vachon called MYSTERY! GLASS. It's a weekly ritual she picked up working at natural wine bar Bad Animal in Santa Cruz. Here's how it works: each Wednesday, we choose a wine made up of a single grape variety, and offer a blind glass to anyone who wants to fathom a guess. If you get the variety correct—no need to ID country or beyond, though sometimes it helps to work backward—the glass is on us. This month, we're extending the game to wine club.
Before venturing into how to play at home, a note on the challenges/pitfalls/joys of blind tasting in our current wine moment: In blinding wine, one is often seeking out "typicity" or how much a wine reflects its grape, country, region, and so forth. For instance, cabernet franc is typified by a nose full of freshly cut green and red pepper; sauvignon blanc from New Zealand is a whiff of cat pee-soaked grapefruit; brachetto is fresh roses and cherry blossom; Meursault all buttered popcorn on movie night. Born of the AOC system in France (the legal stipulations by which wines with AOC labels can be made), typicity has become a sticky subject in wine circles, sometimes thought to sacrifice authenticity for conformity and manipulation. These days, typicity is becoming tougher to pin down, too. Climate change and winemakers working beyond the grips of governmental frameworks have created entirely new definitions of what wine can be, for instance skin contact sauvignon blanc made in Sonoma or sangiovese and chardonnay co-fermented in Umbria.
The kinds of wines we carry at the shop span from beautifully typical Sancerre and Champagne to offbeat tressalier and light-as-raspberry juice schiava. For this month's drop, we kept things more typical than not, with just enough left-leaning variation to keep you on your toes. Off you go.
HERE'S HOW THE GAME WORKS:
1. Each of your wines is wrapped in paper and labeled 1-5, so you remain blind.
2. We've given you a few hints to get started below.
3. Taste however you want, using whatever resources you want to guess. Wine Folly has some helpful guides here and here though the internet is full of tips and tools to get you going.
4. Take a guess. The answers are located here, on our site-based newsletter. SPOILER ALERT! Don't scroll past the wine you're tasting if you want to save the surprise.
5. Come in and tell us how you did. Join us for a Wednesday MYSTERY moment, and keep the guessing game alive.
MYSTERY WINE #1
This grape is perhaps best known for pairing with oysters. In some ways this pairing is material; wines made from this grape embody the salinity of a freshly shucked, lemon-spritzed oyster on the half shell. This particular bottle has a rounder than typical fullness, owing to extended aging on the lees (the wine's spent yeasts), a common practice for winemakers vinifying this grape, and, to me, reminiscent of an oyster's rich flavor. Aside from the literal comparisons, I’d like to think that this grape pairs well with oysters thanks to the scenery it evokes: a crisp summer afternoon on the water, a pebbly beach, ocean breeze in your hair. It’s a dry, high-acid wine redolent of salt, lime, and seashells, and is best served alongside a tray of fresh-caught seafood.
THE REVEAL: Les Vins de Lavie "Denis" Mucadet, Loire Valley, France 2022
Open your eyes and find yourself among the melon de bourgogne vines of Guillaume Lavie’s estate in Gorges, France, located on the western front of the Loire Valley. The proximity of the vineyard to the Atlantic Ocean lends this wine textbook salinity, but time on the lees softens the acidity and imparts notes of vanilla and chamomile. The richness of this wine masks a bit of its minerality, but on a second sip you can locate the rocky soil (granite, gabbro, and amphibolite, to name a few) from which these grapes are grown; this fast-draining soil prevents disease among vines in this damp, maritime environment.
This grape is near and dear to my heart. If the vast vineyards of the old world (hint hint) could only grow two grape varietals, this would surely make my cut (white Burgundy forever).
A thick-skinned red grape prized for its ability to produce powerful, highly tannic and age-worthy wines, it iconically displays notes of violets, rose petals and fresh berries. On the palate and in particularly age-worthy iterations, tertiary notes of leather and tobacco can round out the vibrant, ripe berry aromas you’ll notice when nosing your glass.
The bottle in front of you, however, is meant to be enjoyed today. This venerable wine making family employs their youngest vines and utilizes partial whole cluster fermentation to produce this lively expression. Enjoy and happy blinding. Also, remember to age your wine, reader; just not this bottle.
THE REVEAL: GC Vajra "Clare JC" Langhe Nebbiolo, Piedmont, Italy 2022
Aldo Vajra was one of the first winemakers to adopt organic and biodynamic farming principles in Piedmont in the early 1970s. The late harvest of his youngest vines in Langhe reveals a lighter side of nebbiolo. The inclusion of 20-percent whole cluster grape bunches here result in the punchy nose of tart cherry and pomegranate. After a quick and cold fermentation, the juice is racked off into old barrels for a more gentle extraction.
Nebbiolo from the Langhe, while still highly esteemed, is meant to be enjoyed young; presumably while waiting for his big brother, Barolo, to age sufficiently.
Enjoy slightly chilled and paired with bbq, osso buco or anything hearty and spicy. —Drew Clowney
MYSTERY WINE #3
This varietal can be a little shape shifty depending on the intention behind it. Color can range from a luminous gold to sunlit amber. Soft aromatics of dried apricot, orange peel and candied citron fill the nose along with eucalyptus honey and other Mediterranean herbs. It is showcased in dry, sparkling, and sweet styles. There are dozens of regional synonyms for and sub-varieties of it, painting the picture of a well-traveled family that has adapted to numerous environments. It likes to be hot, dry, and salty while on the vine.
THE REVEAL: Azienda Agricola Caravaglio "Salina" Malvasia Secco, Sicily, Italy 2022
Nothing takes me on vacation in my mind like a Sicilan white. I insist you can always taste the sunshine. It's the first dead giveaway along with the deep floating gold hues. The Salina malvasia from Caravaglio instantly takes me to perpetually windy and warm cliffs, affirming my belief in the transportive nature of wines from this region.
The Aeolian Islands known as the "seven sisters" sit north of Sicily's main island; they first emerged as submarine volcanoes and hold on to a rich and vast history dating back to prehistoric times. Wine has been produced on the Aeolian Islands since at least the 1st century and the Aeolians were already growing vines and profiting from maritime trade routes in the Bronze Age. I’m always here for a hustle history lesson.
Nino Caravaglio has chosen to continue his historical family connection to one of these islands, Salina. Taking over his father's industrious spirit for farming while embracing organic practices, he focuses on the local obsession, Malvasia della Lipari. This malvasia is of a dry expression, harnessing the volcanic earth and vast seas surrounding it. A wine built for longevity, surrounded by ancient things.
In the glass, a sweet delicate scent of citrus and eucalyptus lures you in, only to pull you down into a pool of robust and weighty layers. Sirens are still getting good work these days, even in wine bottles. And don’t let the honey and lemon on the tongue fool you. The salty finish will pull the sweetness away like a tide. There is a sense of control to the wine that is grounding. She may be surrounded by deep blue waters, but her legs are firmly planted on the earth.
I had an immediate urge for grilled octopus with olives and capers after the first sip. Followed by the urge to just sit down and be still. But, since I was at work I just enjoyed the image floating in my head until it was time to pour another glass of something beautiful for another guest waiting to be transported to another space in their mind. —Beth Altenbernd
MYSTERY WINE #4
THE REVEAL: Ashanta "Zazen" Zinfandel, Santa Cruz Mountains, California 2022
Wines can be shaped and reshaped —drastically so—by the winemaker, and this varietal has experienced this in its lifespan. So much so that its hands-off, low manipulations version might be a surprise. This fresh, lively and buoyant wine is brimming with lush berries, soft spice, and sweet tobacco, a somewhat left turn from its often viscous, high-ABV manifestations. Its seriousness is affected by the climate (aren’t we all) with temperate or big diurnal shifts being preferred, this particular wine is true to home. And world traveler that it may be there are only a few places that it has carved out rich followings.
Zazen hails from the eastern side of the Santa Cruz mountains, an area with a long history of excellent mountain zinfandel. This vineyard is made of 97-year-old vines, which, in California terms, makes them ancient. Old and ancient vines produce less fruit in their gained wisdom and the grapes that do grow have a deeper and more intense flavor profile; in the right hands they make for some wonderful wine. Ashanta's winemakers have the right hands.
Life and work partners Chenoa Ashton-Lewis and Will Basanta stepped into winemaking when in 2019 they got word that Chenoa’s family vineyard in Sonoma had unsold fruit on it waiting to be picked; they’ve taken that start and run with it. Working in the zero-zero style of adding nothing to their wines (preservatives, yeast, water or acid) they have created some wonderfully bright and fresh blends and co-ferments as well as this zinfandel.
Ah Zinfandel. A varietal that inspires love and some really hard no’s; it has a wide range of styles and associations from huge, burly reds to sweet, sweet white grape juice. Zazen though is the kind of wine I like to pour a blind sip of, to see how the tastebuds react without the mind's influence. A big tell for me when tasting a zinfandel (if there hasn’t been a ton of new oak involved) is that luscious black fruit: brambly black raspberries, ripe blackberries, juicy mulberries all with that bright balancing acidity. I also often find hints of cinnamon in the way that unsweetened cherry juice can have that cinnamon stick spice. This is changing-seasons wine for me: smell the garden, drink the harvest. —Cassandra Vachon
MYSTERY WINE #5
No tricks here, but this is a study of a grape that does have a spectrum of moods, most predictable. Peppy and bright-eyed on one hand, serious and chiseled on the other. In wine terms, this grape is sometimes fresh-pressed and juicy; sometimes, thanks to carbonic maceration, it's a high-acid zipper; when aged a touch, it remains light, but develops notes of crushed purple flowers and brandied cherry. Despite this particular bottle's higher than usual ABV and bigger body, it is true to the grape. Granitic soil brings in hard spices, garden mint, and stewed strawberries. *This wine is best served a touch cool, cellar temp will do.