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Blinding techniques

Posted: 21:05 Wed 04 Jun 2014
by jdaw1
The method used for blinding the 1958 Horizontal on 3rd June 2014 was really robust, and could be done by ≈‘1¼’ people only one of whom has any expertise or competence. So, for the record and for comment, it is documented here.

In effect there were three sets of decanter labels, which we can call “The Shippers”, “The Blanks”, and “The Greeks”.

The Shippers

Shipper decanter labels were prepared. In advance these were printed, Pritt-sticked to the back of old business cards, and holes punched. Then strings were cut, all to the same length, and the cards threaded and identically knotted. On the day they were identically hung around eight identical ‘decanters’ — in this case, Pellegrino bottles, but any identical containers would do. The matching juice was decanted into each, without secrecy.

Example ‘Shipper’ decanter label
Image


The Blanks

The same person (for the ’58 event, JDAW) then over-stapled the ‘Shipper’ labels with blank cards. Again, things matched, with staples aligned vertically, and diagonally opposite (shown grey in following diagram).

‘Blank’ decanter label showing location of the two staples
Image


The Greeks

Next, out of the sight of the person who over-stapled the blanks, the bottles were shuffled. This could have been done by an inattentive non-expert member of the bar staff, though for the ’58 event wasn’t. That done, the same person then over-stapled with the Greek decanter labels. As there is no need to hide the blank underneath, one staple sufficed, and more would have been inconvenient.


Example ‘Greek’ decanter label showing location of the one staple
Image


This resulted in
Image
(The ζ bottle has extra strings because also hung on it, merely as a temporary holding space, were the spare “†” and “‡” decanter labels, which are just visible ‘behind’ the bottle.)


After the Ports were tasted, and people had attempted to guess which was which, each bottom-right staple was gently ripped apart, revealing the Shippers underneath.

Simple. Robust. Needing little man-power, and little blinding.

Necessities:
  1. Shipper decanter labels;
  2. Blank decanter labels;
  3. Greek (or other non-shipper mark) decanter labels;
  4. Strings of the same length;
  5. Stapler.
Comment welcomed.

Re: Blinding the 1958s

Posted: 21:23 Wed 04 Jun 2014
by Chris Doty
Thank you, Jdaw, as ever, for showing us the light and the way.

I look forward to utilizing this at my next tasting (tomorrow?!).

woo woo
chris

Re: Blinding the 1958s

Posted: 12:02 Fri 06 Jun 2014
by WS1
Hi JDAW,

thanks a lot for this; really easy and effective to use.

regards

WS1

Re: Blinding techniques

Posted: 08:31 Tue 28 Apr 2015
by jdaw1
This thread has been renamed to “Blinding techniques”.
jdaw1 wrote: 23:53 Mon 27 Apr 2015
flash_uk wrote:
jdaw1 wrote:I’d like to do some known comparisons. Labelling the fifteen wines as α1 α2 α3 β1 β2 β3 γ1 γ2 γ3 δ1 δ2 δ3 ε1 ε2 ε3 allows me to work on establishing which year is ‘1’, and which shipper is ‘α’. The structure educates.
Mmm. I can see some merit in that. Would that not add significant blinding admin/faffing?
We could use a variant of the blinding technique used on 3rd June 2014 for the 1958s. This variant requires two pedants. Decant sighted, containers being labelled {G, F, W, D, Ni}×{66, 70, 77}. Pedant One then over-labels with {A, B, C, D, E}×{i, ii, iii}, being careful to label shippers consistently and to label years consistently. Pedant Two, blind to what has just happened, then over-labels with {α, β, γ, δ, ε}×{1, 2, 3}, being careful to map consistently {A, B, C, D, E}→{α, β, γ, δ, ε} and {i, ii, iii}→{1, 2, 3}.