Unlikely pairings – blind or not?

We are firm believers in tasting blind when assessing wines professionally, trying to work out whether reputations are justified, which are the stars of a vintage, for example.

But I am not always convinced that serving wine blind at the dinner table is a great idea. We went to dinner with friends just before leaving London for the Languedoc (as I write, the former is, most unusually, a lot hotter than the latter). Our host usually serves (some very good) wine blind at his table, so it wasn't a great surprise when he chose to serve, after a fully mature...