A grower Champagne from Bassuet, deep in the Vitryat south of the Marne, and a Blanc de Blancs in the truest sense at one hundred per cent Chardonnay. Fine, persistent bead, green apple and lemon curd, a curl of almond and toasted brioche from time on lees. That autolytic weight is exactly what tripped the room. Around four in ten named the Chardonnay; the rest reached for the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir blend, talked into it by the toast. Region went a little better, with half the field hearing Champagne over the Tasmania and Franciacorta decoys. The vintage line was the quiet killer. It is non vintage, and most competitors could not resist writing down a year.

The Lafite family’s Chilean outpost in Colchagua, owned by Domaines Barons de Rothschild, and a textbook cool-vintage Sauvignon Blanc. Passionfruit, lime zest, cut grass and a crunchy line of acid. Seven in ten found the variety without trouble. The region was where it came apart. Chile sits a long way down the list when a Sauvignon this aromatic lands in the glass, and Marlborough swallowed most of the wrong answers, with a few drifting to the Adelaide Hills and the Loire. Only three in ten placed it in Colchagua, the hardest region call of the night. The 2023 vintage split the room straight down the middle.

Back to back Sauvignon Blanc, and entirely on purpose. Ladoucette’s Pouilly-Fume from Chateau du Nozet is the Loire benchmark: flint and woodsmoke, white peach and citrus, the gunflint minerality the name promises. The test was forcing the room to separate two Sauvignons poured side by side, one ripe and tropical from Chile, one cool and smoky from the Loire. Six in ten still found the grape. Region was the real contest, with four in ten landing the Loire while the rest scattered across Bordeaux, Marlborough and the Adelaide Hills. The vintage held at four in ten. Anyone who tasted the pair in sequence and trusted the difference in temperature did well here.

CVNE’s Vina Real, a Tempranillo-led Rioja Crianza with the house signature written all over it. American oak doing its work: coconut, vanilla and a thread of dill over red cherry, leather and dried herbs. Half the field read the Tempranillo, with Garnacha and Sangiovese pulling the rest away. Region matched at fifty per cent, Rioja holding off Ribera del Duero. The 2021 vintage was, as it usually is, the hardest single call on the wine, with four in ten getting there. A clean, classical Spanish red that rewarded anyone who knows what American oak smells like on Tempranillo.

A Barossa heavyweight, and a blend rather than a single variety: Grenache, Shiraz and Mataro in the classic southern Rhone mould. Generous and warm, plum and blackberry, garrigue and sweet spice over a full, ripe frame. Only four in ten unpicked the GSM, with straight Shiraz the obvious and most common miss. The region played differently this month. The usual local decoys were gone, replaced with Priorat, Chateauneuf-du-Pape and Swartland, and even so, six in ten backed their palate and called the Barossa. The 2018 vintage caught more than half of them out. A wine that rewarded recognising structure as much as flavour.

A gentle place to finish, or so it looked. Cockburn’s LBV from the Douro, a Touriga-led blend at twenty per cent, all sweet blackberry and blueberry, fig and a warm spirit lift. Seven in ten named the fortified Touriga blend and seven in ten placed it in the Douro, comfortably the best-read wine of the night on both counts. The catch was the vintage. A 2019 LBV drinks younger than its years, and only four in ten pinned the date while the rest spread across the field. A fitting close: easy to love, harder to measure.