Quite a pleasant surprise last week when three wines arrived at my office all bearing near identical labels. “Secret wine” they read. It was then I remembered signing up for some bloggers’ thing with little or no expectation that anything would arrive. So, in addition to the surprise, plenty of mystery and intrigue.

The concept is this: a French PR company with a very sexy name, Clair de Lune, seduces 80+ bloggeurs from around the world and challenges them to a blind tasting. Their mission, should they choose to accept it, to identify the appellation. Those who signed up, received three almost identical bottles, the only difference being the numbers 079, 390 and 714, and of course what’s in the bottle.

All that was required was to taste the wines and vote on the site, secret-wine.com.

I started with the numbers, very arbitrary, so I thought there was a cipher or code behind them. 0-7-9, 0-G-I, think we’re heading for Gigondas, clever me! 3-9-0, C-I-0, Corbieres? Mmmm, maybe. 7-1-4 G-A-D. Hmmmm, no idea. Perhaps tasting them without looking any deeper is what was called for. So I did just that and here’s what I came up with.

  • #Wine 079 dark fruits, slight floral on the nose, medium bodied, very silky texture, white pepper finish. I voted Cote-Rotie
  • #Wine 390 Bramble fruit, “garrigue”, licorice could be anywhere in Rhone/Languedoc, but Crozes-Hermitage is my vote. I’m sure I’m way out there.
  • #Wine 714 Lightest of all three. I originally thought Pinot, then Cab Franc, then went for Cotes du Rhone

Regardless of outcome, great fun, supremely well organised and very intriguing.

As to my expectations. Like our fate in the Eurovision, Irland, nil points.