#3 is the parlor trick, and nobody seriously into blind tasting will claim that they can do this reliably. On the other hand, they will be able to taste a wine

#3 is the parlor trick, and nobody seriously into blind tasting will claim that they can do this reliably. On the other hand, they will be able to taste a wine blind and list out its objective qualities such as acidity, tannins, alcohol level, aromatic markers, etc. These will generally be quite accurate. From these one can deduce varietal, approximate age, quality level, region, etc. Naming the specific vintage or appellation is doable, but requires a lot of knowledge of vintages worldwide and a lot of guesswork. Anything beyond that is probably bullshit as you say.