I would agree with this. Blind tasting tests such as these are totally silly. When are they ever going to be blind tasting some random wine in a restaurant setting, from a wine list they probably had a hand in choosing? And exactly how is someone supposed to know what exactly they are tasting when so many wines from so many different places could easily be mistaken for a wine from a different region? This isn't 60 years ago when one could probably tell what was Cali and what was French. I've had friends who've worked in wine stores for 20+ years, have most likely tasted FAR more wine from FAR more regions than any of these young kids taking the MS test in the movie and I've easily been able to fool them with regards to region and wine. To me it would make a little more sense to have tasting "stages" where you know region or country and have to identify certain specifics for that wine. Such as left bank, right bank, sub-region, vintage, type of wine/grape, etc. Otherwise, it really is just a crap shoot.Bradley Bogdan wrote:
I don't wish to seem like I'm not in favor of the whole MS system, because I am. It's important to have levels of attainment in any field, and some of my old classmates have used the system to learn a ton and advance in career and knowledge. I just think the focus on blind tasting gets a bit silly.
My other gripe is, according to the movie they don't tell you what the wines in the MS test were. So no one really knows how accurately the test subjects guesses were. None of them could have guessed the correct vintage, wine, and region yet still pass the test. I would love to see a list of what wines were served blind and what the testers guesses were (with the testers names removed of course).
The 2013 testers paid $1,025 each to take the test. That test only one person, out of 70, passed the MS test. It was considered the hardest they ever did. Don't get me wrong, I think they should study hard the geographical stuff and the test shouldn't be a cakewalk. But what's the point of making the test so hard that basically no one passes? To me that reeks of a bunch of old men in a board room trying their mightiest to keep their coveted reputation in place by sacrificing young aspiring students. Not to mention making a cool $71,750 in revenue in the process.