BLIC: balance, length, intensity, complexity
Make the sheets View: A4 · Letter
BLIC is the shorthand sommeliers use for the four things that make a wine good rather than merely different. Balance asks whether anything sticks out, such as sharp acidity, hot alcohol or too much oak, or whether it all sits together. Length is how long the flavour stays after you have swallowed or spat. Intensity is how much flavour there is, from faint to strong. Complexity is how many layers you find, one simple note or several that keep shifting in the glass. None of the four describes the wine. By the time you reach them you have noted its colour, aromas, acidity and body. They are the reasoned judgement between that description and the verdict, the step that turns notes into an opinion you can explain. A light wine can still be balanced and long, so the four also stop a big, loud wine from winning on volume alone.
The quality drill puts this on one portrait page. Each wine gets a column, two to four of them, headed by its numbered ring and colour. Under it come the four criteria, each with three words to circle (off, balanced, seamless, then short, medium, long, then faint, medium, strong, then simple, some, layered) and a short line starting with because for the reason. At the foot of each column sit the verdict rings, How good from Not for me to I'd buy a bottle, and In one word. The footer reads Describe first, judge last. The same four rows sit on The Method and on Side by Side. A tasting you lead has its own BLIC tasting sheet, shown below: a column per wine, one sheet per taster, and a results sheet that names the best balance and the most complex wine. Make the sheets opens On your own with Judge the quality and three wines, and you can change the count. Print one page per person per flight, on A4, Letter or A3.
Make the sheets View: A4 · Letter
Questions
What does BLIC stand for?
Balance, length, intensity and complexity. The letters are English, and tasters in many countries use them as they are, with the four words in their own language.
Is BLIC WSET's?
No. The four criteria are general sommelier practice, used by tasters everywhere, and WSET teaches them to its students. This sheet is drawn from scratch and borrows neither that school's grid nor its wording.
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