Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler wine thread

All these festivals.
You guys are making me jealous, and thirsty.

Had a Rosenblum last weekend, petit syrah.
Very balanced.
I could get into these petit syrahs.


Yes i forgot to post my thoughts.
Haven't sat down much at the home comp lately. Too much evening activity (bbqs, hockey, family).

Long story short (rare for me), the results are inconclusive and more testing is required.

Three testers.
Two red wines (tasted in separate tests, same evening).
Wine 1
Lindemans Pyrus 1997
Wine 2
A Californian zin whose brand i don't quite recall but i can find out. A quality wine though.


The challenge:
3 glasses (2 fresh wine, 1 venturi'd immediately after uncorking the bottle).

The Results:
Wine 1
Tester A and B guessed that the first glass was the different of the three. Tester C guessed the third glass was different.
Tester C was correct.

Wine 2
Tester A guessed that the first glass was the different of the three. Tester B and C guessed the third glass was different.
Tester A was correct.

Our final test was done with a white wine, not blind and only 2 glasses (we were well on our way out the coherent door by this point), tested in A/B fashion, quick and tasty.
All three agreed that the bouquet was significantly different with the vinturi'd offering and that the finish was more smooth.
Coincidentally, during the red wine testing, the same or similar comment was made regarding the testers notes on the correctly guessed wines.
On the incorrectly guessed wines, the tasters had trouble distinguishing a different taste but found that at least one of the wines was definitely more 'robust' or open in its bouquet.

One of the main problems, trying to ABX red wines saturates the pallette. By the time you get to glass #3, flavors from glass 1 and 2 (even with bread in between) was hard to recall quickly.
After our guessing round, we all grabbed the three glass and tested them with a quick sip from each but unless someone messed up the first round of glass placement, the taste was still hard to distinguish though testers A and B were positive and in agreement that the first glass was significantly different from the other two. We contemplated if by pouring the first glasses from the bottle after uncorking could have been aerated enough on the way out to be different.
Not sure, but unlikely.

So, like i said, inconclusive really BUT i think there is merit to the vinturi, the science behind it, and worth another round of testing.
I do believe, from our observations and the white wine round of testing that rushing air through the wine so quickly and vigorously could be changing the chemistry.