Coperta

So today's episode of Three Blind Wines was sponsored by Canolo Farms and their terrific locally cultivated mushrooms. We're here at the lovely Caperta restaurant in the heart of Denver's uptown neighborhood, corner of 20th and Logan. >> One of my favorite chefs in town, Paul Riley. He's incredible craftsman in the kitchen.

Also a really top lad. I made a hearty mushroom and bean soup with some sumac roasted mushrooms from Canola Farms. and I picked three wines I thought might pair well with that. >> Welcome to Three Blind Wines. >> Sam's face is on this. So, we're going to taste through these three wines.

They are wine. That's not juice. There are various colors.

Paul's throwing a little wobbly in the middle there. Let's see what we get out of the glass. I am going to take a stab that Paul's only going to pour Italian wines for this tasting cuz it's an Italian restaurant.

So, that's going to kind of be my lean. Wine number one, medium lemon in color. Swirls nicely in the glass.

Quite floral. It's really lovely on the nose. Really great wine.

Um, I sense it's got a bit of texture. It's great for this weather cuz it's slightly cold outside, but the sun's out so it's nice. >> You get smashed with this acidic like punch to the throat. And there's a little bit of alcohol in there.

Medium plus acidity, medium plus alcohol, even quite warm alcohol, but you don't really smell that on the nose. So, I'm gonna go medium plus on the alcohol. It's making me cry.

It's very emotional wine. The nose leads me towards this kind of fruity maybe down south Kanya kind of region. Um, but on the palette there's got this ripping acid.

So, you kind of like is it slightly higher elevation? Does it have cool nights? That kind of thing.

There is that green almondy kind of earthy tone that you do sometimes find compania. Compana is the Shin of Italy around that area around Naples region. You're looking at like grape varieties like Faniano, Greco, those kind of styles.

Or could it be something in Frii like Riboliala or Freelano where alcohol levels can get a little high you know especially for Freelano. really lovely wine. Textural green almond, hint of earthiness, but good example of Italian whites. >> Wine number one, I think that there's probably a green tinge to this guy. Uh, but since I can't tell that color, I'm just going to say that there is.

On your nose, you definitely get like a lot of green apple, warm citrus, maybe some honeysuckle as well. Let's taste it. There's a lot of alcohol in this for sure.

That first like first couple sips is like all I taste. It doesn't sit on your palette for very long. It's really neutral as a white would go.

I'd say it's pretty high in acidity. Sam might call this a ripper. >> Is a little bit ripping, but I don't get those sweet notes that you do off the smell as I do off on the palette. So like the acidity just kind of sits in the back and it kind of washes everything away where I don't get that like lingering heavy on the palette. >> Nice high acid wine.

I love high acid whites. Some white flowers. Maybe a little butterscotch on the nose.

It's a nice like lemon peel I would say on the flavor and nice nice viscosity too. Freeo Italy >> 2023 country Italy grape I would say Tokai and then the year is going to be 2024. Can I Google this real quick?

Siri is Tokai a grape. I'm a Gen Zer now dude. Oh yeah.

Okay, that's cool. So the grape is Tokai wine number two. Beautiful kind of terracotty touched pink wine.

Could be an orange. Could be skin contact. We don't know until we put it into our noses.

Not straight up our noses. We don't want to do that. You're getting this um kind of more of a berry bouquet.

Apples, strawberries on a patio. It's really charming though. It's really pretty on the palette.

Super interesting. Round, a little bit richer, almost butterscotchy kind of note to it. So like perfect kind of apples, strawberries, a hint of butterscotch, baked apple strawberry pie.

In Australia, we had these kind of like taffy sweet lollies that were kind of milk and strawberry together. Bring back some little childhood memories for me just running loose in the playground just being a lunatic. No, >> you know, now I got to think about what the grave variety is.

I don't have bloody clue. I'm going just call it a strict rosé. I'm trying to think of regions that have rosé around Italy that I can remember.

I'm sure there's tons. pretty bronzy, maybe even a little bit orange. So, my guess would be this is a white with some sort of skin contact. So, an orange wine or maybe just a really light red off the nose.

Raisiny notes for sure. I get like a little bit of date and some slight like a little bit of prune as well in there. On the palette, there's a lingering acidity on the back end.

And there's like a l like a very small amount of like dryness and some tannins. I think that's just from the skin contact. But um the fruit really just kind of like hits all parts of your palette, which is really nice.

It's definitely a great wine to probably pair with something that's a little a little heavier. This is more of like a wine I would probably want to eat something with than I would probably want to just drink by itself. It is super tasty.

There's a nice salinity to it as well. I get like like strawberry Kool-Aid on the nose. Almost like a like a like a powdered Kool-Aid mix, if you will.

Some nice salinity, some nice funk at the end. Again, nice high acid flavor-wise. I I'm stick I'm sticking with I'm sticking with the Kool-Aid.

I love that one. >> I don't actually know what kind of wine this would be. So, this is definitely going to have to be a huge guess on my part. The area it's from, I think it's going to be Czech Republic.

Vion, I don't know if they make orange or Vonè, but We'll find out. I guess >> I'm going to change my attack from Italy. I'm going to throw this over to It's a beautiful lightish color.

So, I'm going to say that this is a Provence rosé because of the kind of terracotty color to it. I'm going to say it's Mdra 2023. Still pretty young. >> Ves 23.

Just smells just too clean. There's there is a hint of dried herbs to it. Maybe I'm just telling myself that now. >> Wine number three.

Oh, just on the nose it's like coffee mocka like riper berries, there's baking spice, there's like herbs all coming out of the glass. It's intense. Like pronounced fruit aromomas coming out.

It's really really sexy. Like a really good red wine. The kind of red wine that you just want to come in here and have a really big bowl of pasta.

It's like a godfather wine. Like slightly gangster. I would just be tucking in my little like checkered napkin into my thing.

Big bowl of pasta. Gangster. That was very Australian of me.

This is one. It's very kind of aromatic and blousy on the on the aromomas on the nose. Right.

There's no tannon to it. Like there's hardly any tannon. There's a little grippy waxiness to it.

There's a naturalness to this wine. So I feel that this kind of like high kind of acidy almost volatile acid kind of which I can smell on the nose now made in a natural way. You got a little bit of kind of acidity.

Impressive up front on the palette. Kind of lacks a little length but so so pretty on the nose. Like so so pretty.

Gravel chocolate mocka deeper deeper berries. Like definitely ripe berries. So, I'm going to say another warm region.

I'm going to say down south Italy. Um, I am leaning to Sicily with this wine. Color, pretty dark red, maybe even like a tinge of purple.

On the nose, there's a lot of like merated fruit smells to it. And I just don't know if it's like maybe that's time of the year and that's what people are picking. I get a little prune in here as well.

I don't really get that sugars that I get from like a raisin or something like that. So, it's definitely like more of like elderberry. Um, I get like a little bit of even some currants as well.

There's a nice like funk on the back end of it for sure. Yeah, a lot of funk in it actually, which is really nice. The tannins definitely hit and like fully round your mouth.

I'd say it's like a pretty light bodied uh red wine. Really, just the dryness hits um more than anything else. I do want to say that I think it's probably like a nebiola.

The nose here is pretty wild. Got a very intense aroma. Little spritzy on the flavor, but nice ripe fruit.

A little bit of dusty tannins. I I definitely think like black olive though, like kind of a funky like oil cured Moroccan olive or something like that. >> Grape I'm going to say is going to be neither >> from the island of Sicily, Italy. going to be a 2022. >> 2019 and Chris is going to make me do this all over again. So, >> so we're doing a new thing which is a point scale.

Is it out of five or four? H four. I get four points. >> And the reveal is and what is it?

Fo >> I did say it could be from Kana. I did lead that way but I thought that the alcohol was What is the alcohol in this puppy? It's only 13%.

What do I know? >> Italian, so maybe I get a point for that. >> It's really, really lovely. Like I was like, hey, the the aromatics on the nose were really good and then this acidity kind of like ripped you up the backside. So it was a really good little wine.

So loved it. Wine number one is a Fano from Compa. The producer is La Capran or the Black Goat.

I really love this wine. We pour it by the glass here at Copera for Chardonnay adjacent drinkers who, you know, are probably bored by big Napa shards. This has a lot more going on, higher acid, but some of that same like pallet as as a as a Chardonnay.

But yeah, um, Fano is kind of one of the noble grapes from Kana, and we love how it goes well with a broad range of our food to compare. >> Wine number two. What do we have? Oh yes, it is Italian.

It's a rosé type of wine. Oh man. Rosé.

This is where being color blind doesn't help you out. >> It's a Sardinian rosé >> from Sardinia. Pala is the producer. P A L A. >> Also Italian and the grape varietal I definitely didn't get right nor can I actually say it.

So, >> and it is a rosé of Monica spelled like the woman's name Monica. I just adore this rosé. It definitely reminds me of a classic provinile style.

I did say provenance on this based on the color. Monica, >> that's really cool. >> I didn't get any of this right. >> I'm not doing too well today. >> That's really a rosé. >> Yeah. >> Damn. >> What do you have? >> A ro got it wrong again. I'm on a roll today. >> Vincenzo.

Oh, I know this bloody producer. Sam's face is on this. >> What is the grape variety? It is Mons Peliciano, isn't it?

And where's it from? >> Another Italian blend. >> Abbruto. Cool little wines. >> Really good. >> Yes. Vincenzo Rosso Montuliano.

Sam definitely probably won this this one. So I've gotten the regions right for two of them. Uh and then the year on this is going to be um >> a non vintage.

So >> I win, I guess. >> Nonvintage. Uh, Monte Puliano Debrut by uh, Vincenzo Roso. Awesome wine maker.

Is that's his mug right there on the label. Kind of a fun bonus for today's Three Blind Wines. We're going to uh, blindfold Sam and Justin.

Let's see some of that. >> Good thing I'm not a paranoid person at all. >> And put some mushrooms in their hands. See if they can guess what kind it is. >> Something I got to touch. >> I don't know if I like these, K. And it's one of the mushrooms that we're using in the soup as well. >> Oh my god.

You can taste it. You can smell it. >> 60 seconds. Feels like mushrooms. >> Yeah, mushrooms.

What type of these little mushrooms? They're those little um God, I couldn't think of the exact name. Um they're called not seps.

Maybe in France they're called seps. They're like um little I can't think of the name. Um, like the little beachy ones.

Not shamey. No, the bloody I'll just say sips. It's mushroom.

Um, I'm going to guess chestnuts. Chestnut mushrooms. >> You got it. >> Oh, chestnut. God.

Chestnut. >> How did you know? >> Just the feel the caps on the size. And also, we've been using a lot of chestnuts lately. So, got one thing, right?

Bonus points, baby. >> The dish I made today, yelloweyed pea and bular soup that had some sumac, roasted canola farms mushrooms, whipped tahini, and a little bit of dill. the challenge to cook vegan. I I enjoy the challenge and you know, I'm actually a a member of the Rancho Gordo Bean Club, so I knew I wanted to use beans. I knew Sam would dig that.

And I had those yellow eyed peas in there, which quite frankly, I've never even cooked with before. and they were really awesome and kind of sweet and provided a great stock for the soup. The dish ended up being sort of like a fusion, if you will, of some Italian and some Eastern Mediterranean take on like a mushroom barley, if you will. >> Oh, yeah. Your favorite soup, dude.

Cool little zest from the sumac um which kind of cleans it up. It's really warming and hearty, do you know? It's kind of like, you know, after, you know, when you were a kid and you played a game of soccer or or rugby in the rain and you got home and it was winter and it was really cold and your mom gives you a little bowl of soup.

It's kind of what it feels like. Beautiful soup. >> What Sam was describing in terms of like it was nice and hearty. That was exactly what I was going for.

Hardy and earthy. >> Sorry, I won't be eating the food today. I'm not trying to be rude, but I do have a I just found out I have a celery allergy and uh I'm just trying to stay away from it. And our producer Chris didn't tell Chef Paul that I'm allergic to celery.

So, I'm just I'm actually just reading off of I'm eating through Sam's facial expressions today. I picked this wine because I thought that be because of its, you know, more round viscosity on your palette that it would do well with the mushrooms, like kind of pairing with the with the meatiness of the mushrooms. Without tasting it, I'd honestly probably say the rosé is probably the best thing to pair with it.

With soups or any like sort of stews, there's a lot going on. So, I think like the first one uh might be like a little too acidic and might clear your palette too much. And I think like where the rosé lands on your palette might actually like just be really nice and kind of work with the black ey peas and the earthiness.

You have some carrots, celery, and then you have like earthy mushrooms. So, that would be my guess. >> I agree. The rosé really is great with it.

It's the most even of the wines. So, there's a hint of like kind of berry sweetness on the rosé, which is really nice with the soup and gives it a different element. And the acidity kind of cleans it up nicely.

It doesn't interfere with the flavors of the soup. So, the soup is like it's really really good. Nice high acid.

And I really thought that, you know, like the the hardiness of the bean broth and the smokiness of the bean broth paired with the char on the mushrooms would go really nicely with the rosé. Mushrooms kind of meaty umami flavors. Then you've got sesame with like seeds.

So, that's also this kind of earthy uh kind of richness to it. And then beans are the the life force of life. It's lighter on your palette, which I thought would go well.

You can't really have like a like a a lighter brothy soup like that with a really big red and high tannin. That is like really nothing on the tannin scale. But again, like some of the more sweet and smoky notes of that wine, I thought would go really well with the soup. >> I I'll be living to 100 by eating this soup.

There's nothing better than bean soup. My favorite pairing with the soup I think is what Justin and Sam did was the was the rosé. I I that was my call from the get-go and I think it it was it was the winner in the end.

The wines are really really great and we'd like to thank Paul for inviting us in and giving running through this tasting with us. >> I really wish I got to eat some of the soup producer Chris, but >> after fondling mushrooms and then eating it the mushrooms in my soup, I'm very happy >> again. I got to sat I got to be satisfied watching Sam uh enjoy his meal while also making a lot of noises. Thank you, Chef Paul, for having us here.

All the wines are really tasty and the food also looked really good. Bye. Thank you.