'Wine options': the division of opinion

I am a participant in a weekly lunch where masked bottles of wine are presented and the ''options'' game is played. Recently I took a 2001 Chateau Figeac which to the best of my investigations comprised 35 per cent cabernet sauvignon, 35 per cent merlot and 30 per cent cabernet franc. On asking the question "Is this wine cabernet or merlot dominant", and thinking it was clearly the former, I was surprised to find it caused a division of opinion. The majority thought it to be neither dominant. Can you enlighten us?

For those readers who have other things to do at lunchtime (eat a sandwich, pick up the dry-cleaning, sneak off to a job interview with the competition), allow me to explain that "wine options" is played by people who like talking about wine almost as much as they like drinking it. Players sample wine from a masked bottle. Typically, whoever brought the bottle or is running the game - and hence knows what the wine is - asks a series of questions. Is it from the northern or southern hemisphere? A cab sav or a merlot? Is it a recent vintage or an older one? Does it come from Coonawarra or the Yarra Valley? Made by Chateau Superposh or by Massmarket Estate?

So it goes, with the game-meister revealing the answers step by step. As the game goes on the questions may become more detailed until the players have established whether the grapes were grown on the north or south-facing slope of the vineyard in question, and the colour of the viticulturist's underpants on harvest day.

So, to Chateau Figeac. Due to my hall cupboard's regrettable paucity of high-end St-Emilion Bordeaux, I'm not qualified to offer an opinion. If I had to put money on a blend like this I might tend to expect the cabernet character to be marginally more obvious than the merlot after 10-plus years in the bottle but I'm only saying that because you've already told me what the proportions are. Maybe that affected your judgment, too?

Speaking as someone who is as likely to win a wine options game as a Nobel Prize, I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. After all, it's a drinking game, not a multiple-choice exam.