How to Host a Blind Tasting of New Zealand Pinot Noir

5 days ago

2 min read

Clos Ostler EOS Pinot Noir 2022 beside a glass of red wine on a stone table.

A concealed label changes the conversation around a wine. Reputation, price and familiarity recede for a while, leaving perfume, texture and persistence to hold the attention. For New Zealand Pinot Noir, with its range of regional and estate expressions, this can make a small tasting unusually revealing.

A tasting with a clear purpose

Three or four bottles allow time for a proper comparison. Similar vintages and prices make sense for an evening devoted to regional differences. A comparison within one estate has another purpose, allowing the selections to be understood against a shared place and season.

Caroline’s 2022 and EOS 2022 offer that second possibility. Caroline’s brings together five clones from across the vineyard; EOS follows a narrower selection centred on 667 and 777 with a touch of Abel. Tasted together, the wines give the blending decisions a tangible form.

Conditions that allow a fair comparison

Numbered bottles, identical glasses and comparable serving temperatures keep avoidable differences to a minimum. One person can conceal the labels and retain the key. Small pours, water and somewhere to spit make the tasting comfortable without requiring everyone to finish each glass.

Air deserves similar attention. Young bottles opened together can be followed over the same interval. Older wines may need individual treatment because of sediment or fragility; recording that treatment makes the comparison easier to interpret.

Room for an independent response

A few quiet minutes before discussion allow each person’s impressions to form. The language need not be elaborate. A particular aroma, the shape of the tannin or a flavour that remains on the finish can be enough to explain why a glass is compelling.

Returning to the wines in a different order gives the first impression some perspective. A forceful opening and sustained interest over an evening are separate pleasures, and the group may value them differently.

After the reveal

Once the labels are visible, the vineyard accounts and published reviews become useful context. EOS 2022’s 97-point Platinum award at Decanter 2026 belongs to that conversation, alongside the impressions already recorded.

The bottles can then continue into dinner. A tasting has particular value when it leads to a wine someone wants to encounter again, with enough curiosity to follow the estate into another vintage.