This is one reason I prefer double-blind horizontal tastings, ...
There were a pair of interesting results in the senior projects at the local school a few years back. Both were built around blind tastings, with black glasses so not even the color of the wine was apparent, etc.
In the first, the wines had been treated (enzymatically?) to simulate ageing, and although chemical analysis could easily discriminate the treated wines from the control wines, human tasters gave the same notes.
In the second, the wines were exactly the same, but different music was played during the tastings, and the human tasters gave the same wines different notes.
Ambiance matters; better a poor wine in good company... -Dave
