Through A Glass Darkly
As noted in a couple of previous posts (April 26 and 27) the color of a wine can dramatically influence taste perception. One way to avoid that problem is to taste using an opaque glass; that is, a glass that does not allow the color of the wine to be seen. Oh yes, such glasses do exist. Riedel have one called the Blind Blind. You can find a review of it here. A slightly cheaper….Did I say slightly? A much cheaper version can be found here. Both glasses are black so that even if you look into the glass you will not be able to tell the color of the wine you are tasting.

Do I recommend that you use either of these glasses? In a word, No! Why? Well color (as we are about to learn any day now!) can tell you a lot about a wine. This is why you should always use a transparent glass with no etching or coloring when tasting. However if you want to test your ability to taste without the influence of the wine’s color, or if you want to demonstrate the influence of color on taste perceptions, then by all means get some of these glasses.

Which glass should you get? Oh, what the hell! Get the Riedel for yourself. And the cheapies for anyone else brave enough to taste truly blind along with you. I wonder if that’s why Riedel call it Blind Blind!