Gallery: Team Tasting

Twice a year, we try to get the whole team together. Not just to talk business (though there’s obviously a lot of that,) but to keep our skills sharp and our morale up! Particularly important once a few months of winter have seeped into our bones…

Dhall & Nash’s ‘hub’ with the most staff is in Auckland, but with reps all around the country it can be really good to touch base in person every now and then.

This time, for the educational part of our get-together, Brandon decided to stoke the fires of friendly competition with a blind tasting contest! Not just fun, but a great way for everyone to slow down, get thoughtful about the wines and nuances, and collaborate.

We thought it would be very interesting to let you know what our teams tasted and thought. If they thought something was a wine that you know you like, but it turned out to be different, then you might just have a new favourite to try…

Brandon selected 8 current wines from our portfolio and had them secretly shipped to the office. (It was so secret we had some worries the morning of that perhaps they had never arrived!) He decanted them all shortly before the tasting into different shaped bottles (to make sure nothing could give it away,) and put each bottle into a brown paper bag.

He split the tasting teams up into three, and gave them each a sheet where they would record their answers, with columns for;

• Grape Variety (worth 3 points),
• Country (2 points),
• Region (2 points),
• Producer (2 points)
• Vintage (1 point)

…for a total of 10 possible points per wine.

Each team had 3 minutes to sniff, swirl, taste and discuss the wines with their teammates before presenting their thoughts.