Mandrea Bike took on wines of the world virtually in a blind tasting between three households with bottles from four continents over one zoom call. Social interaction has taken numerous digital forms during this pandemic, and wine tasting has evolved into its own form to encourage social distancing. 

HOW IT WORKED
The four wines were delivered to each group in advance and rules were established that no peeking at the bottles was permitted beforehand to keep an equal playing field. The household split into teams (A & B) and joined forces with their counterparts from each residence. Team A poured all the same wines in numbered glasses while Team B was out of the room, the same process occurred the other way around so that neither group knew what they were tasting but the other group could keep track in order to keep score at the end. 

Once all of the participants had all four glasses of wine in front of them, a prompt cheers kicked off the tasting. Each person could taste in their own style, at their own leisure as the individual tasting notes were recorded for each wine. There were some discussions during the entire tasting over a zoom call but nothing was revealed until everyone was satisfied with their guesses. 

Each player kept their own score with the honour system as each bottle was revealed and a quick discussion ensured among the participants. Once the scores were tallied, it was time to finish the wines, the easiest part of the night! 

THE WINES

• Big Head Red – Blend – Canada
• Muga Reserva – Rioja – Spain
• Wakefield Jaraman – Cabernet Sauvignon – Australia
• Terra Vega – Carménère – Chile

THE FINDINGS
From the tasting, the Big Head Red and Muga Rioja were the obvious favourites, except RP who favoured the Wakefield Cabernet Sauvignon. Although the tasting notes of all the players were fairly consistent on these two wines, not everyone guessed the countries correctly. Only one person, Mad Max, paired all the wines with their respective home nations. Another consistency between all the tasters was the dislike of the Chilean Carménère, which ranked last every time. 

This evening was a blast, and judging by the positive feedback, it will be the first of many during the COVID-19 era. But in true Mandrea Bike fashion, no night is complete without some food to enjoy while sipping. A mezze board was on the menu that included our homemade Hummus, Mutabal Dip, and freshly baked Naan Flatbread which can all be found in the Recipe section of our blog.

Drink with you soon, 

Mandrea Bike
(Mat & Andrea)