I curate wine tasting events whereby the wines are tasted blind. In other words the participants sample the drink without knowing its producer, label, price, or origin.
The wines are then discussed and explored before their identity is revealed.
These tasting events are called Shiner Tastings.
TASTE
Six to eight wines are presented without the usual weight of labels and reputations. What do you actually taste? What do you think it is worth? Would you order another glass?
REVEAL
We reveal the wine’s origin, vintage, production story and why it exists outside the producer’s principal range. The anonymous bottle acquires a history.
DISCOVER
We explore what distinguishes the wine: Vineyard. Vintage. Variety. Winemaking. Production. Positioning. And, sometimes, the peculiar circumstances that caused the wine to become a shiner in the first place
IMAGINE
What would you do with it ? Could it become a restaurant wine, a hotel house wine, a private label, a vanity project for a celebrity, a limited edition. Perhaps it’s an opulent fine win that none has yet noticed.
Aitken Pearson. Founder.
FdA International Wine Business Plumpton College. WSET 1,2,3.
I independently curate and organise The Shiner Tasting — a different approach to discovering wine, centred on tasting the wine before its identity, provenance or price is revealed. I work with producers, estates, collectors and trusted wine contacts to uncover previous vintages, estate-held wines, library releases, small-producer parcels and bottles rarely encountered through conventional channels.
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Each tasting is built around wines selected for their character, provenance, sense of place and ability to challenge expectations. The aim is not simply to identify what is in the glass, but to explore what the wine is saying before the label tells us what to think. The Shiner Tasting may take the form of private tastings, hosted events, wine dinners or carefully curated sessions for groups who want to approach wine without the usual assumptions.
Estate & Vintage remains the sourcing and curatorial foundation behind the tastings, providing access to wines that might otherwise remain beyond the usual channels of distribution. The wines, themes and format change regularly. Each tasting is an opportunity to encounter something unfamiliar, taste without preconceptions and discover the wine before the label.
WHAT IS A SHINER?
In the wine industry, a shiner is a bottle of wine that has been fermented, aged, and bottled—but leaves the winery without a label. Because the bare glass bottle reflects light, it appears shiny.
The wine before the label.A different kind of wine tasting
What happens when you taste the wine before the label tells you what to think?
The Shiner is an intimate tasting experience built around finished wines that sit outside the usual spotlight — second labels, alternative cuvées, surplus parcels, experimental wines and other releases that rarely receive the attention given to an estate’s headline bottle. There is no grand cru hierarchy to follow.
No famous label to impress you.
No tasting sheet telling you what you are supposed to think. Instead, we taste the wine. Then we uncover where it came from, why it exists and what it might become.
Who is this wine tasting for?
01
Wine Enthusiasts.
For people who enjoy discovering wines beyond the obvious names.
02
Collectors.
For those interested in what sits alongside — and sometimes beneath — prestigious estates
03
Hospitality.
For restaurants, hotels, clubs and wine-led businesses looking for distinctive wines and new ideas.
04
Private Groups.
A deliberately different format for private dinners, clubs and corporate gatherings
It is wine tasting without the usual shortcuts. A chance to encounter remarkable wines with fresh eyes, challenge your assumptions and discover what a wine might become before you know where it comes from.
SHINER TASTINGS
SALIENT POINTS
CREATING UNFORGETTABLE WINE EXPERIENCES
WHERE GUESTS TASTE WITHOUT BIAS, DISCOVER HIDDEN DEPTH AND SEE WINE ANEW.
uncover
hidden
character
rethink
what
matters