Photo by Jason Millstein / Illume Photography

From T-shirts to tattoos, rooftops to ring tones, the onslaught of advertising is nonstop. It’s a miracle we can make educated purchases based solely on product. Wine is no exception.

Even drinkers with extensive experience are subconsciously swayed by factors outside of product quality, including price, packaging, reputation and Spectator scores. That’s why I taste blindly whenever possible. So when I received an invitation to attend Vinsight, a big-league blind comparison of 40 highly regarded wines hosted by Kendall Jackson’s Jess Jackson, I was on the plane to San Francisco faster than you can say, “media market share.”

A room packed with restaurant buyers, collectors, chefs and sommeliers discerned the merits of nine Chardonnays, nine Pinot Noirs, six Merlots and 15 Cabernet Sauvignon-based selections, all offered in flights of three. Personal tasting preferences and prejudices ran rampant, and I found that my own partiality was rarely in concert with the reigning opinion of the room.

There’s a theory I subscribe to that tasters with New World palates (i.e., an inclination toward the more fruit-driven offerings of California, Australia, etc.) can still appreciate the charm and nuance of Old World wines, but the tasters with Old World palates (some of whom proudly call themselves “Acid Freaks”) almost never enjoy the power and glory of wines of the New World. The Francophile-heavy crowd here clearly illustrated the point, finding fault with some truly wonderful wines purely due to their New World origins. One taster went so far as to say an ’04 Merlot from Chateau Lafleur in Pomerol “did a graceful dance on the palate,” which only made sense if you consider the Polka to be a graceful dance.

While I enjoyed the ’05 Chardonnays from Burgundy (Jadot Batard Montrachet, in particular), the ’04s seemed almost flawed. The California Chards (favorites were Kistler and Patz & Hall) offered up much more personality and range of flavor, although with such opulent body I question their balance and age-ability. The Pinot Noir from Burgundy followed suit, gorgeous in ’05 and grim in ’04. The ’04 Cambria, ’05 Williams Selyem and ’05 Kosta Brown (German chocolate cake – wow!) each told a different story in a rather loud voice.

Both the Merlot and Cabernet left me thinking that anyone investing in ’04 Bordeaux First Growths might want to save time and just burn the cash. These wines have no joy in them, with the exception of Chateau Latour, a brooding monster so monumental it could star in the next Godzilla remake. To me, the final flight seemed New World, Old World and Third World, as the last wine was almost undrinkable (’04 Chateau Mouton). Much more charm was found in California stalwarts ’04 Phelps Insignia and ’04 Stonestreet Legacy, along with newcomer W.S. Keyes Merlot, a blissful bright light from mountain fruit.

The lesson, as advertised: With wine, it’s better to buy blind than to blindly buy.