' Lenne Blind Tastings - Lenne Estate

blind tastings

Lenné Estate hosts blind tastings, open to the public, several times a year.  

Tickets to our blind tastings are $70 per guest, and the events include lunch. Attendance is capped at 16 guests due to limited quantities of the wines. Ticket pages for these events go live about two weeks before the tastings, and due to high demand, we can not offer any pre-sales for blind tasting tickets. Watch this page, our events page, our Facebook events, or subscribe to our mailing list to receive event notifications. 

Here's our 2022 Blind Tastings schedule. All dates are tentative, until the ticket pages go live. 

  • February 19, 2022 -- Pinot Noirs from Burgundy, France. -- This event sold out in 3 hours.
  • April 9, 2022 -- Oregon pinot noirs. The Oregon Wine Press profiled this event.
  • June 18, 2022 -- Red vs. Black. Oregon pinot noirs, Dundee Hills vs. Yamhill-Carlton.
  • August 20, 2022 -- Chardonnays from around the world. (California, France, Oregon, + mystery!)
  • October 22, 2022 -- Pinot Noirs from around the world. (California, France, Oregon, + mystery!)
Our blind tastings begin promptly at 11am on Saturday mornings  We are unable to offer any tickets in advance of the ticket pages going live, in order to give everyone an even chance at scoring a ticket.

What is a Blind Tasting?

patio blind tastingLenné Estate hosts several blind tastings each year. These events are open to the public and feature eight wines for attendees to taste, rate, and rank. Each guest is furnished with eight glasses and is poured a taste of all the wines side-by-side, for easy comparison. Guests spend about half an hour tasting and evaluating and ranking their favorites. 

Watch a video recording of a blind tasting from August 2020 here. (Part one and part two.)

The tasting and comparison is fun, but the real excitement comes during the reveal. Lenné staff double blinds all the selections; one person puts the bottles into bags, then a second mixes them up and numbers them 1-8. This way neither we or the guests have any idea which wine is which. 

The reveal is done wine by wine, led by Lenne's proprietor/winemaker Steve Lutz. Steve is as in the dark as everyone else about which wines are which, and he starts with wine #1, asking who liked it or didn't, what people thought about it, etc, before pulling off the paper bag and revealing the identity. 

Steve then speaks a bit about that wine, the region, the  vineyard, the winemaking techniques, etc, giving guests insight into why each wine shows as it does. This continues wine by wine and often results in applause, laughter, or gasps of surprise as the group discovers what they really think about the wines that they've never before truly blind evaluated.

The blind tasting concludes with lunch via a hearty antipasto board featuring meats, cheeses, breads, crackers, pickled veggies, olives, and other such fare.

Our blind tastings are themed so the wines offered are related and comparable, and all from the same vintage. Examples:
  • High end Oregon Pinot Noirs; all wines retail for $100+.
  • French Burgundies; 7 Pinot Noirs from France + 1 Lenne wine.
  • Red vs. Black -- Oregon Pinot noirs, 4 from Dundee Hills (red-fruited from the volcanic Jory soil) and 4 from Yamhill-Carlton (black-fruited from marine-sedimentary soil). 
  • Oregon chardonnays, or Chardonnays from around the world.
  • Pinot Noir around the world, typically includes wines from California, Oregon, France, and New Zealand.
The blind tastings at Lenne are limited to 16ish attendees (we typically have one bottle of each of the wines) and the $70 ticket price includes the tasting, all the info of the presentation, and a light lunch. Guests are welcome to stay for a tasting of Lenne wines afterwards, but we ask that you make an appt for that, due to our limited seating space.  

Please let us know if you have additional questions or would like to be notified about upcoming blind tastings. Email us at eric@lenneestate.com or call the tasting room: 503-956-2256.