Somebody People

Welcome to Three Blind Wines, the cinematic masterpiece where we have two professionals. We have a chef, Paul Riley. My wife won't watch this.

And a wine pro, Ben Stewart. This is Nebiola. I'm going to flip this table.

We give them three blind wines. That is wines they don't know where they're from. We let them taste them.

They have to guess the who, what, where of those wines. We have Justin Freeman who's created the best vegan pot pie. And then we're going to see which wine pairs best with this gorgeous little dish.

Hi, I'm Pauly Riley. I am the culinary director at Coperta in Denver's Uptown neighborhood and I'm also a James Beard semi- finalist for best chef mountain for 2025. Hi, I'm Ben Stewart.

I am the key account specialist for Juliana Wine Company. Here to do some wine tasting. Hi, I'm Justin Freeman.

I'm the chef of Somebody People. I'm Sam. So, owner of Somebody People.

Wine number one. Soft. It definitely has a little bit of that Mars pen almost a little bit honeyed characteristic to it.

A little bit melon. It's got a little bit of a stony minerality to it. Color's got a little bit of a green fleck to it, but it's mostly like sort of a hay yellow, medium plus acidity on there.

Nice sort of broad mouth feel. Not super viscous, not super rich. Less mineral on the pallet than I got on the nose.

This is definitely giving me a Chardonnay vibe. I don't know if I would place this in burgundy. I think it feels a little bit more Californian.

Um, but could be a little curveball. Could be a little Viraa perhaps. Who drinks Vieiraa?

You know what? I think that this might be a nice uh Chardonnay here. I I don't detect any new oak on here, but it could be like a neutral barrel Chardonnay.

Not burgundy. maybe California or uh even like a sort of satellite Appalachian like France or or somewhere else. It's a it's a nice quality wine. Juiciness to it.

Little bit of minerality, nice acidity. Told everybody I'm ready to go for three today. Very high acid wine.

Pretty thin on the color. Like uh just a very faint gold to it. Creaminess on the nose.

Like citrus peel as well. Oh, here we go. Yep.

Certainly high acid, great food wine. Um, it's excellent. My first thought was definitely Italy, Northern Italy.

Yeah. I don't know. Gosh.

Like, it's got it's got a little bit more structure than like a like a veno verde and definitely more alcohol than that. It's a little more hot than like a veno verde, but the color almost makes me think of that. I know.

Maybe I do need another sip. Actually, there is nice minerality to this wine. So, I'm actually changing.

I'm going to go with for the grape. I am going to stick with Chardonnay here. wine region is California and the bottle price 28 bucks. So I'm going vertino Sardinia $18.

So the first wine we're trying today is Leokco. It's out of Soma. Beautiful wines brought in by Craft Wines.

I think this is just a gorgeous little entrylevel shardi that's got cream on the outside. It's got great acidity. Plus it's got that cool little apple pieess to it.

So wine number two here. Little bit more golden in hue. Look like there might be a little bit of sediment going on in here.

I'm not sure what that might indicate. The fruit is towards the orchard end of the spectrum. Perhaps even a little bit of a stone fruit characteristic to it.

A little bit of white peach sort of thing. Citrusy. It makes me think of Alberinho, but I'm not certain this is Alberinho.

The acid is not as high as I would have expected it to be on the palette from the nose. Orange blossom. A little bit piffy.

There's part of me that's pulled me away from Alberino, but it was my first thought there. And it does have that citrus pathiness to it. That stone fruit, it is definitely uh bright.

The acidity is nice. So, I'm going to stick with Alberinho from Spain. Galacia.

Galithia. Pronounce it like an idiot or like an I don't know. Straw colored.

I don't know. Maybe like some pineapple. We'll see.

I'm I'm going to go for it. I guess that this wine might see a little bit of oak. Not a lot.

Not like nothing like a California white, but French American almost seems like too obvious for what I'm tasting. So, I'm going to say it's a Vuv from Western Australia. Alberinia, Spain.

Galysia. Galysia. Shot in the dark here.

Vuvet, Western Australia. $21. $32. Second one. is the wine that I really really enjoyed when I went on my travels in Italy. Quint Desimo brought in by natural wines 2022 Greco Dupo.

It's just got it all. I think it's just incredible. Great bottle as well.

Wine number three. The wine's red, little bit garnet, a little bit sort of rusty towards the edge. I mean, it's translucent, but you couldn't read through it.

You know, it's it's dark. I mean, the color is, you know, definitely ruby. I would say that the wine is very mediumbodied, at least in appearance and viscosity.

Aromatically red and blacked, but there is a little bit of a barnyard thing going on here. I don't think it's full-blown like Bratanamyces. It's not like manure, but there's like a rusticity to it on the nose.

It's medium on the palette. Nice acidity to it. Fresh, no oxidation.

It's not a hypertic wine. This could be Sanjioves. It's definitely the fruits towards like a cherry cherry end of the spectrum.

Black cherry. H little bit like a blood orange thing going on in there. It's tasty.

I like it. This could be a lot of things. Could be garnaca.

Could be ganache. The acidity is pretty high. It's a little higher than I would typically expect from like a varietal garnacea.

It's not pon noir. It's not floral enough to be pon noir. It's not cabernet.

It's not dark enough. It's not temperinio. It's not sarra.

Doesn't have enough of that topenade sort of thing. I don't believe this is game because it doesn't have enough of that strawberry fruit. There's no oak.

There's a little bit of I think this is done in steel like a Montapuliano de Brutzo. I kind of like that. I think I'm going to stick there.

I'm going to go with it's Monontapuliano de Brut from Italy. And I would expect this to be around 25 bucks on the shelf. All right, wine number three.

Uh definitely a little cloudiness to this red. I'm going to off the top of my head guess this is a a natural wine and the the the nose would tell me it is that nattiness. I'm almost getting some like black olive off of the nose. some minerality as well, like just like like dirt or beets or something like that.

Certainly high acid. Pretty decent viscosity actually on the on the palette. Man, I don't know.

With a with a natural one, I feel like it could be from anywhere. So, I'm going to go with Sanjioves from Sicily. Natural wine for sure.

I'm going to say it's $27. Agricola Brandini wine brought out by my good friend Patrick H. curtain from Windown Selections. Do the aba just roses like it's on the label.

It's just like floral roses. Has a slight dark tone to it, but a gorgeous little wine with some great acidity. The reason why I chose the wines that I did is because I think that all of them have a great vein of acidity.

They're creamy on the outside, but soft on the inside. Today I'm intimidated with these two giants of the industry sitting beside me. And so I had to pull out all the stops with these wines, but um I really want to know what do you think of them?

Overall, I like them. I would be happy drinking any of these wines. High acid, which you know, nice for food and and for my pallet as well.

And and um yeah, I would I would say my favorite was probably wine number one. Wine number one. Yeah.

Cool. But um but but I wouldn't kick any of them out of bed. Nice.

Nice. Yeah. Yeah.

Delicious. Yeah. Yeah.

If I had to pick a favorite, I would probably go with number two. Yep. Yeah.

It just has a little bit more of that like floral characteristic. It's got a little bit higher acidity. Yeah.

Uh a little bit racier. Yeah, for sure. Cool.

So, obviously Justin and I work worked together and we we we kind of collaborated on this little tasting. Uh, some of these wines, um, I collected on my recent trip to Italy and some of them I just really love and I thought that they would go with the dish well. Um, but obviously I I we we want your feedback, you know, because, you know, three males are better than one in a sense, you know.

I called it Chardonnay. Yeah. Uh, I thought that, you know, based on the mouth feel, it's got a little bit of like a broad soft around the edges mouth feel.

There could be some neutral barrel on this. It does have a little bit of that caramel uh marzipan uh orchard fruit sort of thing that I always that always takes me to Chardonnay. Now you're saying Italy or you mentioned Italy.

So you call vertino. I said verino. Are you second guessing now?

The minerality made me think verino. I'll stick with verino. Yeah.

Good. Good. Don't crack under pressure of three blind wines and don't be intimidated by others around you.

What's wine number one? Camera Chris. Camera Chris, lay it on us.

Bottle artwork designed by Sam. Appears to be a [ __ ] Brewster or All right. And it is Leokco Shardova 2023.

That ain't going to be 28. Leo Char. This is actually their entry level.

So, it probably would retail from probably about 35. Wow. 35. Um, too bad.

Dude, you did pretty well. When I saw Leoka, I was like, that's going to be more than 28 bucks. Good price for California.

That's a great price. And it does have minerality to it, which sometimes it gets a little washed out on in Sonoma, but love this wine. Really cool.

And I think it ticks all the boxes. I really like the creamy kind of cuddle cream ending of it. And hopefully that combines well with the dish that you are going to try.

Oh my god. I would drink that whole bottle. Me too.

That's really good. With a straw. Wine number two.

What do you reckon? I said Alberinho from Spain. From Galithia.

Galithia. Nice. Nice.

How come? Orange blossom. Stone fruit.

Peach. It's a little bit peachy. It's a little bit honeyed. [Music] It's aromatic and floral.

And it's got that racy acidity. It's got a little bit of a salty thing and that that I don't know like once I thought Alberino, I just couldn't get past it. I really had a hard time penning it down.

Um I'm actually getting some like uncooked bacon notes. A little bit of like smoke actually to be honest with you. Um I said it was a ruay which which um which I'm sure is incorrect.

I said it was from Western Australia just because of Yeah. Shannon Western Australia. Yeah.

So cool. Oh, I like that. Cool.

Don't be fooled by my Australianism and the allure of the largest island in the world. This is probably the biggest curve ball of them all in the world. You knew it.

It is Italian. I would not have been Italian. It's very strong wine.

Uh and that's why I depicted my art art by Sam. Bottle art by Sam. We'll just have to have a look.

What is it? What is it? Greco Dupo.

Oh wow. Quinto decimo. Greco Dupo 2022 from Kana.

Can't say I drank a lot of Greco Dupos. Yay. I have drank a lot of Greco Dupo and I'm actually it seems very obvious at this point.

Tasted this wine in Italy and I kind of fell in love with it just because I think it's like it's got a little bit of texture. Yeah, it's great acidity. Kind of smacks of companish, but also just produ like across the board, their wines are amazing.

But probably retail, this would probably be in the 60 mark. Yeah. So, this is this is the banger of the lineup.

I I wanted to showcase this and I think it would go really well with Justin's dish. This could be a curveball, but it it might not be depending. Oh, you don't say.

Paul, what do you reckon? I said it was definitely Natty wine from I believe I believe I said it was a Sanjuay cuz I I noticed uh little little thinner on the palette, but I noticed some cherry. You said strawberry, which really I I that I nailed.

That's spot on. Uh, well, I said I didn't get strawberry. Oh, really?

I totally I said I wasn't getting a ton of strawberry. Oh, man. I totally But now I maybe I am.

I believe I said Sicily, by the way. Oh, okay. Sandra from Sicily.

Yeah, it's mediumbodied, medium to lighter body. It's It's bright acidity. It doesn't appear to have any oak on it, like he would be steel.

Um, I do feel it's it's got Italian vibes to it, but I was having trouble sort of pinning it down. And and so in that situation, you know, there there's certain varieties that come to mind such as Montapuliano and that's where I went with this with Montapoch because it does have a little bit of that rusticity to it that I always get with Montiano, especially any Mulchano Brut. And um and often and that's where you often find a lot of wines, even the high-end high quality ones will be made in steel.

Really, really tasty. Well, I'm kind of like surprised you didn't pin it down cuz you're such a WWE fan. Yeah.

So, uh, mustard back to the wines. Um, black olive was a little bit of funkiness. Black olives for, but yeah, Sanju, maybe for I danced around with Sanjioves.

I didn't find it floral enough to be, you know, like I didn't find it floral enough to be something like a pino noir or g or, you know, I mean, you mentioned fat, but I don't know if it's floral enough to be a fat. Yeah. But yeah, it's definitely got a little bit of like a legs to me.

Like a good summer red, actually. Yeah, it's fresh. Yeah, I like it.

It's a new wine that's new onto the market, so you probably haven't tried it. It's from our good friends at Windown Selections, Patrick Potent, Windown Selections. I did taste with the wine maker in Italy.

She's fantastic human and does a really good job with all her wines. It is out of Pedmont. And this is Nebiola.

I'm going to flip this table. Jeffy. So, this is obviously the more um kind of poetry reader design that I have of my bottle.

Okay. Uh it is Dolchto the Alba. Wow.

Agricola Brandini. Smoking. Very pretty little number.

All their wines have this kind of feminine touch in Pimont. They've got great acidity, really joyful in the glass, just like springtime. I threw this in really because I needed to get a wine with bit of high acidity to cut through the creaminess of the dish and and also just to lend itself to a little bit of kind of spice and richness.

So, Dolchetto, I love Detto at the moment. I'm trying to drink as much dochetto as possible. I think it's really great value on the market as well.

And I do believe that everyone should drink more of these kind of country style of of wines coming out of Italy. So what was the price? This would probably land at the bottle shop around $32.

It's pretty pretty. Yeah. So great little number.

Uh again, go and get it. Look up windown selections. Cheers.

Thank you so much. All right. Should we get some uh we should get some food on the table?

Chef, drink the rest of this. So, today I made a springtime pot pie. I've been toying with this idea for a good while at this point now.

The spring in Colorado is pretty crisp late at night. It's really hot during the day, so I been having this idea of like what I would like to eat late at night on the cooler nights with a nice glass of wine. We've lucked out that our farmers are starting to produce some really great uh produce right now.

So, I just pretty much took everything that they had on the farm that's all growing together and put it into one pot. I've always grown up eating like a pie or something like that with uh loads of Tabasco. So, um I definitely had a little restraint on it and made sure that I put a little bit in there, but I do like the how you doing on the back end.

Smell it. Incredible. Come on down.

Come on down. Definitely looks hot. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. It is pretty hot, but it's also pretty delicious. God the chef.

I'm going to eat the whole thing. I can't not be emotional about this. That's like one of the best, dude.

Dude, I'll They're putting that on the menu. Yeah. Like, is that going on here?

I'll take this over any meat pie. You're a guinea pigs, dude. It's so good.

I would take this on any meat pot pie actually to be honest with you cuz one it it ends up being lighter but the turnups actually they're the hyri turnups I bet. Yeah they they they they end up having such a meatiness when they cook anyway so it really stands over it. Yeah they I it definitely adds enough weight and structure to the dish.

Yeah. This is great. I honestly it's an excellent pairing with the with the Chardonnay.

That's so good man. And there's enough acidity in the Chardonnay to lift it up and and stand up without it's not it's like creamy with creamy because the Chardonnay does have richness to it for sure, but there is also that really lovely floral characteristic and then the acidity balances out nicely. I agree with everything he just said, but I actually I'm going to go with the Greco Dubo is the better pairing cuz a grape pairing brings out subtleties in the wine that I didn't taste on its own, which I'm totally getting with the Greco.

I haven't got to the Greco yet. Butterscotch going on now. I think it it is quite nice.

Actually, the Greco is also opened up significantly. Yes, it has. For sure.

It's showing, and I mean this in the very best way, a little bit of like a sweaty characteristic, almost like that sort of hockey pad gym sock sort of thing on the nose. That was an amazing analogy. I mean, I get that from some of my favorite wines in the world.

Like great, you know, grossest Quebec German Reesling will show that, you know, from certain producers. Um there there's more complexity for sure aromatically on the Greco and I think more mineral going on as well. It's really good, dude.

What I love about this is I think a lot of times we're in we're in like bra green season right now, right? And and because everything's got greens like you know the turnipss that are coming in, the radishes that are coming in all have greens and they're edible and they're delicious. But I think sometimes there's a propensity, at least for me as a chef, to overuse all those greens cuz there's so many of them.

And there's like great restraint here. It almost makes sometimes when you use the grains too much, it gets it like mucky kind of or and and like there's like the perfect amount here adding earthiness to it. This is excellent.

I'm going to I'm taking this to go if I don't finish this cuz I want to eat this every single day. The red feels lighter in the in the in on the palette with with this pairing than I would have expected. I still like it as a pairing, but I I I would both the whites I think are better with me going to the Greco is still the best.

I Yeah, I I agree with that wholeheartedly. I feel like the acidity that was apparent on the Dolto previously is, you know, maybe not quite enough to stand up to the dish, but still good. Yeah.

I mean, say it more eloquently than I did if it I mean, yeah. I but I'm also going to totally 100% agree with you that the Greco is still the the the winner out of the three. The best pairing is wine number two.

Greco did too. [Laughter] Can I ask a question? Can you turn on the air conditioning? My wife won't watch this.

Sorry, the camera guy pulled me off. Okay. I was looking at you, but I need to be looking at you.

Smack them with the boom. Not you. You.

Well, I started out as a restaurant tour, but now I'm a YouTube [Music] celebrity. That's awesome.