The Platter Wine Guide is not opposed to blind tasting as a wine evaluating method. This is according to the Philip van Zyl, editor of the popular South African John Platter Wine Guide.

Van Zyl made these remarks at Platter’s open discussion forum which was held in Somerset West on Thursday 16 April. This forum was initiated by the editor and publishers of the Platter guide after its tasting methods, objectivity and transparency came under public scrutiny by wine writers such as Neil Pendock. Public interest in the contentious issue was immense and more than 220 people working in the wine industry attended the forum.

Van Zyl said the guide will publish its 30^th edition next year and boasting more than 1.25 million copies sold, the guide has definitely become part and parcel of the South African wine industry. He stressed that transparency, objectivity and honesty are very important to the Platter guide and therefore the forum was initiated to educate and inform the public about their tasting methods.

With reference to the blind versus sighted tasting debate, Van Zyl differentiated between sighted, blind and double blind tasting methods. He elaborated on their multi-stage tasting process and ensured that consistency plays a very important role in their evaluating and reporting process. The guide will continue to be a consumer advisory publication and sighted tasting will remain the main tasting method for future publications.

The Platter guide will taste about 6500 wines for the next edition. This vast amount of wines causes practical and logistical constraints and that is one of the reasons why blind tasting methods cannot be exclusively used to evaluate the wines. 

Van Zyl added that the guide is not against blind tasting as an evaluation method. He indicated that the guide uses blind and double blind tasting in certain cases to confirm their results. The potential Five-star and Super-quaffer wines are all tasted blind and this implies that hundreds of wines are therefore tasted blind.

I think that the huge turnout confirmed the importance and popularity of this guide and their mythologies. This guide will remain the benchmark of SA wine evaluations and consumer will still trust and act on the recommendations.