That may be pointing out the lack of expertise of the tasters.
Aren't red vs white wines different things? I'm not at all a regular wine drinker with a sophisticated appreciation of the nuances, but I can pick up lots of different tastes between different wines.
There's a huge difference in taste between heavily wooded wines (e.g. Many reds and most Chardonnays) and wines made in stainless steel containers (e.g. most Sauvignon blancs) and it would be easy for anyone to tell them apart. But the taste difference between two wooded wines is far subtler.
Red and white wines are both made from red grapes, the difference is that for red wines the juice is steeped in the grape skins which causes it to absorb tannins. If you learn to taste tannins you should be reasonably good at picking red from white, but the flavor from wood in young barrels is similar.
Aren't red vs white wines different things? I'm not at all a regular wine drinker with a sophisticated appreciation of the nuances, but I can pick up lots of different tastes between different wines.