[dia80]

I'm always a bit put off by the "experts can't tell the difference between these two things!", in this case red and white wine. On closer inspection one usually finds an element of deception, here the white wine is coloured red and then experts describe it as a red on tasting.

This makes sense from a Bayesian point if view... What are the experts priors? What's more likely? That their nose is off today or someone is trying to decieve them by dying white wine red? I would guess it's the former. There must be a large publication bias is well, "experts can differentiate white from red wine" is hardly going to get much attention.

To make this a fair trial I think you need to blindfold them rather than "trick" them.

[dejv]

My pet peeve with all of those studies is who they consider as an expert. It is usually adhoc random group of enology students.

There is great video of guy trying to reconstruct red wine from whites + coloring and serving it to master of wine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN83j5ZOUm0

And there are a lot of other tricks and blind tasting sessions in his channel. This is how expert taster works.

[rasz]

>There is great video of guy trying to reconstruct red wine from whites + coloring and serving it to master of wine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN83j5ZOUm0

Whats the point of a wine? looking at it or tasting it? Dude recognized its colored before even tasting it, or rather strictly without tasting it. Would he be able to do this without looking at it?

[dejv]

Yes, he actually explain that during tasting: when you smell white wine you start to be describing it by white wine vocabulary, when you smell red wine you start using those. The case of being skilled taster is being able to recognize when something is off.

[darkwater]

But the looks and the smells are part of the drinking experience as the flavors (unless you just want to get drunk).

[caddemon]

I'm pretty sure the exams to become certain levels of somellier involve passing a taste test, and for the highest level it requires picking out very specific info about grapes and vintage. I could believe that a random person off the street wouldn't tell the difference between white and red, but it seems highly implausible that an actual expert couldn't, because in order to even become an expert they'd have to be proficient at a harder task.

[root_axis]

The article states that the studies were blind.