Blind Tastings
Nobody sees the label until you say so.
Host a tasting for the table, or taste one glass on your own. Everyone writes a real note without the label in front of them. The host reveals the wine, the guesses are scored, and each note lands in its author's own account as a normal tasting note.
The gap today
- Blind tastings run on paper. The scores end up in a notebook and the evening leaves nothing behind.
- Every note in a wine app is written with the label in view. Producer, region and price set the score before the first sniff.
- Comparing what eight people thought means reading eight sheets of handwriting out loud.
- Whoever poured also knows the answer, so nothing stops a glance at the bottle.
- The notes belong to the evening, not to the people who wrote them.
What changes with Vinius
- Bottles are registered before the corks come out. Vinius holds the identity and shows it to nobody, the host included.
- Everyone tastes on their own phone, in the same WSET structure Vinius uses for every other note.
- Nobody reads another person's note until they have submitted their own.
- Reveal is one tap. Guesses are scored against the real wine and the table sees where it agreed.
- Each blind note becomes a normal tasting note in its author's own cellar, marked blind.
Ways to play
One glass or a full table
Same model underneath. A solo session is a table of one, and nothing is special-cased.
Just you
Someone hands you a glass and will not say what it is. Start a session with one pour, write the note blind, and reveal it when you find out.
A table
Three to eight people, each on their own phone with their own account. Share a six-character code, a QR or a link. Everyone leaves with their own notes.
Your club
Club-hosted sessions, listed inside the club and open to members, are the next step. Hosts can already run a club evening as a table today.
What's inside
Built so the wine actually stays hidden
Masking happens on the server, not in the interface. What your phone never receives, it cannot leak.
Wrapped until you say otherwise
The person who registered a bottle is the only one who can see it, and only behind a long press. The host gets no exemption. Every other pour arrives at the phone with the wine stripped out.
Real notes, not a quiz form
The blind note uses the same WSET structure as every other Vinius note: appearance, nose, palate, conclusions, rating. Quick rating or full assessment, whichever the room has time for.
The guess, scored
Grape, country, region, vintage year and price, all optional. Eleven points a pour on a rubric that fits on one screen, scored the moment the wine is revealed.
A reveal worth watching
The cloth comes off the bottle, your guess is scored line by line, and every rating at the table drops onto a 1 to 100 strip beside the group median.
Vinius at the table
Invite Vinius as an extra taster. It answers from the wine's enrichment data, structure and aromas only, and holds its prose back until the reveal like everyone else.
Notes stay with their author
At the reveal each submitted note is written into its author's account against the right vintage, marked blind. Responses stay inside the session and never go public.
How it works
How an evening runs
Register the bottles
Name the evening, say how many wines, and match each bottle to the catalog with what you paid. A wine Vinius has not seen before gets enriched while you are still planning. Guests can bring their own and register it from their phone.
Open the table
A six-character code, a QR on screen, or a link. Everyone joins with their own account. For the guest who will not install anything, the host enters that person's note on their behalf.
Run the rounds
Each glass is its own round. People write and submit, and only then can they read what anyone else wrote. One wine at a time, or open all six and reveal at the end.
Reveal, score, keep
Guesses score against the real wine, the evening names its Sommelier of the night, and every blind note is filed in its author's cellar. Anyone who liked the wine adds it to their wishlist on the spot.
For hosts and club operators
The first reason to open Vinius with other people in the room
A blind tasting is the one wine ritual that puts a group on the same wines at the same time. Everyone playing needs an account, everyone leaves with notes they keep, and the host finds out which bottle the table actually wanted. That last part has never been measurable on paper. After the reveal anyone can add the wine to their wishlist, and the host sees how many did.
- Join by code, QR or link, with sign-up folded into the join
- Guest slots and pass-the-phone for anyone who will not install an app
- Wishlist counts per wine, an honest demand signal straight from the table
- Session notes are visible to the table and to nobody else
- Runs in the Vinius iPhone app, on the same account as the rest of your programme
What the table sees
Private by construction
A session redefines a private note as "me plus the people at this table", so it is treated as a disclosure, not a setting. Consent is asked once, at first submit. Responses, guess scores and awards are session-scoped: they never appear on a profile, never aggregate across evenings and have no public state at all. What you paid for a bottle is never shown before the reveal and never leaves the session.
Wrap the bottles. Let the table argue.
Blind tastings come with every Vinius account, solo or a table of eight. Request access, accepted by invitation.