Is it possible that a person would not be able to distinquish a red wine from a white wine in a blind tasting - and if so, which wines would be difficult to distinguish??
Answer From Expert Roger Bohmrich MW
That's a fascinating question, as is the whole question of controlled or blind tasting and the results which can come to light. It is often amazing - and possibly humiliating - to find out you've come up with a wild and unrelated answer when asked to name an unidentified wine in a glass. Even experienced, competent tasters often make mistakes. Regarding red vs. white wine in particular, studies have shown that red wine descriptors - strawberry, cherry, plum, etc. - are used by subjects to describe white wine colored red with a neutral food dye. If you want to construct a truly frustrating blind tasting, use opaque black glasses which are available for this purpose. Serve all the wines at room temperature. To make it almost hopelessly challenging, choose red wines which have no evident tannin (basic New World Merlot) and non-aromatic whites which are soft and full bodied (warm climate Chardonnay). You'll find, I'm sure, that participants often confuse the two colors. Afterwards, to assuage everyone's hurt pride, serve a fantastic bottle of chilled Champagne...not blind, of course.
