Blind Wine Tasting

We planned this wine tasting way back in November. There were going to be 6 of us and we were going to taste a few red wines, blinded. No, we don't close our eyes, but we do disguise the wines that we will be tasting.
When the day came, one of the couples couldn't make it but we still had the blind tasting. Our friends brought the first wine we blind tasted along with some finnochio, which is fennel sausage and a local cheese from Mystic Cheese Company called Melinda Mae.
The style was easy to guess because the bottle shape gave it away. It was a Champagne. Our friends showed us the top of the cork cage and it read "Gruet". We've had our share of Gruet over the years, check out these blogposts: Gruet A Méthode Champenoise from New Mexico and Gruet and Billiot Champagne Tastings, but those tasting were in 2017 and 2014, respectively.
When the "sparkling wine" was poured, it was blush in color so we knew that we were tasting a rosé. I liked the "sparkling wine" very much, it had just the right amount of dryness for my palate. My husband didn't think that it tasted like a Gruet. We all enjoyed it. When the last of the bottle was emptied into our glasses. Our friends asked us how much would we pay for that Gruet. I thought it was a very high end Gruet so I guessed that it was $45.00. My husband concurred. The reveal:

Oh we were so wrong! But is it right to mislead your friends with a fake Gruet top? We are fortunate that our friends are on the Cruse mailing list and have allotments of Ultramarine to taste!
We moved on to the main course which was brisket, baked beans and salad. To pair with the beef, we had had in mind two other red wines but at the last minute substituted another wine. Our friends brought another red wine so we had 2 blind red wines to savor and guess what the wines were made from and where they came from. I knew one of the wines so my focus was on the other. It tasted young to my palate and the aroma and flavor reminded me of Cabernet Sauvignon. My husband guessed that it was a New World wine. In any case, we enjoyed both the wines with the food. When the reveal came we were drinking:

The 2014 Pask was from our friends. Only 375 cases of this 2014 Gimblett Gravels Trilliant was made! It is a Merlot-based blend, with smaller amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec, matured for 20 months in French and American oak casks (55 per cent new).¹ The Dunn was my husband's contribution. There was nothing to fault in either of the wines and we enjoyed them both.
All in all, we had a grand time and look forward to another evening of blind wine tasting!
Reference:
1. Michael Cooper's Buyer's Guide, Pask Small Batch Gimblett Gravels Trilliant (2014), New Zealand Wines.