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Clearly, some have an emotional or economic interest in minimising or even denying the importance of these consumer-oriented blind tasting competitions: 

The Emperor Has No Clothes

The owners of 30 of  the best wines in the world, in the judgment of a Champagne company president, were invited to a party in 1997. The event was organized by Jean-Claude Rouzaud to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his presidency of Champagne Louis Roederer. Half of his selections were from France. ""I’m a chauvinist and a nationalist"" he explained. 

""Before agreeing to participate, the Bordeaux first growths set some conditions, the foremost being that no comparative tasting with their international competition would be held."" They didn’t even want to be included in a group photo with their colleagues from other wine regions, although they finally reluctantly agreed.  ""But getting the Bordelais to have their wines served with the others', that was out of the question,"" said a Roederer spokesperson.

So the event took place in two separate parts: first, a dinner featuring the Bordeaux wines; then a tasting the next day with all the other wines, but no Bordeaux. 

""They are cowards,"" said a non-Bordeaux producer.  But the host said  ""I understand them."" He explained that  ""They feel that when you are first growths you are untouchable."" Their problem is that they actually know better.

They and the other named growth vineyards have a carefully cultivated  image of  superiority. This is a marketing advantage worth an incredibly enormous sum of money every year. However, they frequently fail to perform well in blind comparisons and realize how vulnerable they are to exposure and the destruction of their vaulted  and very valuable reputations. 

Because of this the named growths  (1) want to avoid  comparisons  and (2) try to discredit  the results of such comparisons . Who can blame them? Those results can cost them a fortune in lost revenue. But the consumer benefits immensely.

Party in Paris. Wine Spectator, 15-11-97  

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