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I'm Caroline Clark. I'm the beverage director for It Est. We're here at Hikido where I've picked three wines to pair [music] with our smacked cucumber salad. >> My palette is dialed.

My taste buds dialed. >> I want to beat Sam this time. >> As long as they're all relings, I think I I'm going to nail it. >> Welcome to Three Blind Wines. [music] >> Could I say one little thing about good and fun wine? Here at Hey Kiddo, we serve [music] good and fun wine. So that means delicious, sustainable, and here for the party. >> One number one.

Really pretty in the glass. Crystal clear. Pretty brilliant.

Fun. It's got uh this beautiful little creamy note. Just like a dollop of cream on top.

Hint a little lemon zest and all that kind of fun stuff. Does remind me of Chardonnay off the bat. So that's my first initial.

But now I'm going to deduct what it can't be. Oh, we've got some acid. Woo!

Searing, ripping acid, which just like like a blade from Blade 2, Wesley Snipes down the pallet. It's really, really intense. Really, really pretty one.

Wow. Could be heavy. There's definitely like nice minerality to this wine.

A little bit like clay on the nose. A little funky as well. Like wet mud.

Or I guess all mud is wet. Let's taste it. Pretty light on the palette.

There's a good amount of acidity that goes throughout. You can definitely taste the minerals on the back end of the palette. There's a nice like saltiness that kind of just sits, which is really nice.

I don't know what wine this is, but it it's really tasty. After my second sip, it's definitely like a really nice wine to probably pair with something that's like a little more acidic with some like nice fatty notes. >> A pretty light wine aromatically. It's [music] giving a little bit more minerality out of the gate than fruit.

Kind of stony, a little wet rock, a little bit savory, maybe like a salinity to it. The alcohol is pretty moderate. If there is a little more kiss of fruit, it's going to be in [music] the citrus vein.

It's lemon. It's a little lime zest. There's a mild floral component to it, too.

On [music] the palette, it's a little bit weightier than you'd expect um from the nose being as [music] light as it is. It's got kind of a bit of sort of a lactic finish, what you might expect [music] from like a creme fresh. It's definitely driven by a mineral component, rain on the pavement thing, and a tiny bit [music] of lemon pith. >> I'm going to go with my initial thoughts.

I'm gonna go that I'm gonna say this is Shabi >> Shardon France 2023 >> Shabli 23 French. All right, wine number two. It's got a little bit more color in the glass.

It's a little bit more weighty. Yeah, but that was slightly greener. This is a little bit more kind of yellow, I guess you'd say. >> All the wines are the same color to me today, so this is perfect. >> Oh, yeah.

It's a little bit more natural. [music] kind of soft peachy kind of characteristic, a little blossomy on the nose. Exotic spice. Um like saffron, that kind of nature. [music] There's a lot going on on the nose to be totally honest.

It's a really really um striking little wine. Um it's really really fun. Wouldn't have a clue what this wine is.

I always get stumped on wine number two, but it's got good acid structure. I hate calling it VA, but volatile is a as an aroma, but VA kind of acidity to it, but it's it's really charming because it just kind of gives it an edge. Uh like um therma Thurman, sorry, um Thurman [laughter] from Killville.

Okay, so this one could be a couple of things. Could be Alberinho, could be Shenon from France. There's this weird little apricot characteristic to it on the back palette.

I'm getting something else. Wine number two. Off the nose immediately, I get like some nice sour green apple.

A little hint of like a little bit of like honeysuckle on the back ends. You can definitely like smell the sugar on the on the nose. Almost got like a really nice body to it.

Sam would say there's a lot of structure in here. I'm learning things in season 2. It has a nice build for sure.

It sits on the palette like really well. There's acidity kind of throughout, but the there's enough like roundness which is really nice that kind of like helps it just stay throughout the like the whole way through. I'm still kind of facing it right now. >> Wine number two, more bold style of white wine.

The fruit component on it is going more into tree fruit, orchard fruit, green apple, yellow apple, kind of bruised apple thing happening. An apricot moment. >> It's got this apricot characteristic to [music] it. almost a very fresh style of it. It's not overly sweet.

It's not overly jammy. It's just really [music] bright. There's an unusual aromatic element [music] that takes me into kind of >> Is it like newer? >> No, it's more [music] like plastic. [laughter] Not in a bad way, but just in [music] um in a sort of a brightness and and more bold way.

That might be the feeling that the textbooks [music] tell you is petrol or gasoline as we say in the United States. A little bit of an interesting bitter finish to it. Again, more in an herbaceious way than an unpleasant way. >> I'm going to go I I'm probably wrong on the first one.

Maybe this is what the first one is, but I'm going to say that this is >> [music] >> uh Gruner. And I'm going to go that it's uh also German. Let's call it German.

Uh and it's 2024. >> Shannon Blanc France 2022. >> Bruner 2024 [music] German. >> It's really pretty. All right, so we're getting the tail end of this tasting. Wine number three. >> Weirdly like off the nose, I immediately smell Tabasco, which no one will ever say that they smell Tabasco in wine, but I did.

There is like a weird like fermented pepper note to it which is really nice. It's like sweet floral. It's kind of almost like a lacto fermented like ai pepper which is really nice.

Even when you taste it like you fully taste the you fully taste like fermented or like early green peppers when it's like a little bit earlier in the fruit. There's a lot of floral notes for sure. Acidity is nice.

It kind of sits on the back end. Uh there's not much weight to this one. Um it's kind of like a little more crisp I'd say. >> Again, yellow in the glass. quite pretty. [music] Not as [clears throat] uh exuberant as the other one.

And the tears are a little bit more relaxed. Not as tight. It's not as weighty in the glass is trying kind of what I'm trying to say.

This gives me Chardonnay vibes as well. On the nose, you're getting a little leazy characteristic, a little creaminess, firm wine, [music] well put together, really kind of structured well on the nose. Anyway, the fruit's all there. smells pretty.

You've got beautiful white flowers. You've got some good kind of fruit characteristic coming out of it. It's not over the top.

It's not flappy in any way. Can't go shard again, can I? Again, this kind of like little zingy fruit tingly kind of not notion to it.

I'm not sure if uh you have fruit tingle lollies here, but they're kind of like guess they're kind of like pop rocks kind of thing. [music] It's not sweet like that, but it's got that kind of zing sourness to it. It's really uplifted in the glass. >> Let's try it again. [music] >> This is a hard one. >> Right out of the gate, this is definitely the most generous on the nose. It's [music] got a bit more richness to it, a bit more creaminess to it as well.

It's also got an aromatic quality that reminds me of butter right out of the gate. It has a fattiness to it, but it's flavorful. The fruit here is a little more ripe, leans towards tropical passion fruit, a little pineapple.

It's restrained but right. There's also a an acidity piece that's really interesting. Um reminds me a little bit of almost like kumquat or goose berry.

These these fruits [music] that are much more tart than they are sweet but still have a freshness to them. Lots of citrus also. Um lots of lemon, fresh lemon, lemon juice, lime, but definitely dominated by fruit and dominated by um [music] a a plusher mouth feel. a Greek wine and the vintage is 22.

The grape varietal I'm just gonna I don't know any Greek wine grape varietals, but that's my guess. Whatever Greek varietal I win. >> Albbruno from Spain 2023. >> I don't know any I don't know any Greek grape varietals. So I'm giving out the point.

The scoring how it works is it's two points for varietal, one point for vintage and one point for the country of the wine. >> Wine number one is what do I call it? I call it Chardonnay from Shabli Gruner. God >> and it is a Gruner.

Completely wrong. I definitely said Shabi and I said Gruner for the second one. So from Austria, zero points for me.

This is Sonhof Social Club Gruner Veltiner from the CompT region of Austria. >> And I don't know the year >> and it is nonvintage. >> That was really tasty though. It was probably my favorite one out of all of them for sure. >> This bottle, you might notice, isn't a leader. This is an homage to how this region produced and bottled wine in the past.

We love it here at Hey Kiddo because this is for the table. It's for food. It's for friends.

It's for gathering. One thing at Hey kiddo we're always looking for is something that's good and fun. The good part about this wine besides it being delicious is that it is all organic grapes.

Even though it's a collective from a few different families, it's all organic producers who are really working on biodiversity in the compl region, but they want to make something approachable and something that a lot of people can enjoy. >> Beautiful little wine. I think that's why I got stumped at the end. I should have taken more notice of that.

But yeah, really pretty wine. It was a creaminess to it. Yeah, I thought maybe I maybe I just thought it maybe I was thinking of cream for some reason. >> Gruner. >> Why number two?

Ordinary fellow. >> Rezling. No. Yes.

Rezling. Oh my gosh. >> Sam's favorite. Why didn't I know this one? >> This is the ordinary fellow Rezling from the Box Barard in Colorado. 2024.

I think I got the vintage right. >> This is a very special vineyard. It is located on the slopes of the Sleeping Ute Mountain and this is a very historic part of Colorado. This is where the PBLO people live and historically was a very thriving settlement.

There is still to this day ancient pottery in the vineyard as it's never been excavated. So here the wine maker and all the farming is done with a lot of care and stewardship for such a historic place. The Rezling itself is a really good ode to Colorado wine.

It's got that orchard fruit peach that we're looking for that feels [music] very apt for the Colorado teroir and in in the west of the state. >> So Ben from Ordinary Fellows is out of Paliside. He does some really fun stuff and uh all his wines are like super clean, very elegant, really approachable and if you're looking for some [music] fun Colorado local wines, it's a really good option. You know, we do lots of wine dinners with Ben, and it's good to have his wines in the liner.

I'm I'm [music] stoked. I am. I'm stoked that I got it wrong.

Area [music] wrong. Grape wrong for sure. >> Ben's going to be so pleased. >> It is on my white list. I haven't I haven't I haven't tasted it in I don't even know if I got the 24.

I think I got the 23. Tag the bag. >> Clock. >> Good for you to throw a little local wine in. Thank you.

That's cool. Wine number three, Sylveon Blanc. >> It is Soon Blanc, but it's from Outwood >> and it's a 2024. >> Wine number three is Soon Blanc from Outward. It's a 2024 bottling >> Santa Maria Valley.

Not a Greek wine at all. [laughter] >> Outward is the project from Ryan Pace and Natalie Sadique. They are a married couple in central coast of California. This comes from the Preskill vineyard in Santa Maria Valley known for being a very cold vineyard.

So here there's a unique east west mountain range as opposed to north south. So the valley becomes a funnel to allow fog to cool down uh inland parts of the central coast which results in really great acidity and snap in a warmer area. >> Natalie and Ryan from Outwood really really smart wine making. Really cute little couple.

So >> I failed miserably this one. Maybe I should really be drinking a little bit more wine in the new year. But thank you.

These were all really delicious. >> They're really cool. Super fun wines. Looking forward to the dish. >> Our smacked cucumber [music] salad is a really popular choice for a [music] bright and spicy vegetable option.

There is a sort of traditional method coming from northern China originally where you [music] take a cleaver or rolling pin and you smash the cucumber so that the vegetable pulp kind of becomes available to soak in all the sauce. The sauce is a chili base. It also has yuzu.

It's garnished with mint, cilantro, and papita for a little crunch, a little nuttiness, and a nice herbal lift. >> I'm really excited by this cuz I think all the wines are are really really well structured. They're really pretty [music] and um I think the direction I think that there's a lot of thought going into how it pairs with the dish. And so that [music] kind of stumped me kind of thinking, oh, maybe there's one wine style that really goes with the dish in three ways.

And so I was kind of thinking they kind of tasted [music] very similar in certain ways. But I'm really looking forward to how they taste with the dish and see those like subtle nuances. I think that's the beauty of of places like Hey Kido is that they really delve into the intricacies [music] of of certain flavors and how they balance together and and how wine is paired with those certain subtle like nuances [music] in the dishes.

So really looking forward to that. God, that was poetic. Amazing. >> Thank you.

That drink's delicious. >> Thank you so much. >> Oh, yum. >> Oh, yeah. The Rezling has this I was calling it thinking it was Shannon this kind of peachy note, but I think it's got this kind of hint of like little orange zest in the back [music] palette and I think that'd be like nice just to give it a little >> energy. I disagree. [music] Disagree. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> I'm definitely going to go with wine number three.

Those like pepper notes with the salinity, the weight of the wine, and the peppers would go really well with all of it. >> Okay. >> Like white pepper notes. >> Early fruit, >> bell peppery, >> you know, like when you like lactofaced fermented pepper and like the fruits really come out of it. >> The herbaceious nature of this little savvy bee is coming through. Now >> try it with the Rezling. >> Rezling just goes with everything. [laughter] Wine number three pairs great with the smacked cucumber salad. I love how the more tropical notes come together with the uh herbs and with the freshness of the cucumber. >> The sav is is is amazing with it.

I like the the energy of the acid which kind of combines with the spiciness of the cucumbers. I think it does highlight the spice though a little. >> Yeah. But you're a spicy guy. >> That's what happened.

I'm like an early breit. You're the later >> breit. Yeah.

Yeah. >> Yeah. >> But you also love like Twilight, don't you? >> I do like Twilight. >> Yeah. >> Buffy the Vampire Slayer. >> What she would probably choose is that um her favorite wine >> for sure >> uh would be >> I was going to say the Rezling. You just deleted all that. Okay.

So, wine number two is Ben's wine. Ordinary followup. Wine number two pairs great with the snack cucumber salad [music] because of the slight semblance of sweetness.

Even though this is a dry wine, when you're pairing with something spicy, [music] this will help sort of meld and make the the heat a little more cohesive. >> The little subtleties in the dish is is really really gorgeous. Like the little papitas to add a little nutty characteristic, the cilantro, >> toasted chilies, >> toasted chilies. It's really vibrant on the palette.

That's what Hey kiddo does is this kind of vibrancy in their food. It's like every time I've been here, it's [music] it's always really so many different little nuances of food and flavors that come. It kind of bursts out of the dishes.

And so, if you haven't been here yet, come cuz it's incredible. I am going [music] towards the Rezling just because of that kind of hint of lemon characteristic with that kind of zesty sour orange that kind of comes through. And I think that just kind of brightens it up.

Like I do like chili spice with orange. >> The mint for sure comes out a little bit more when you drink the raising, but I don't know. I honestly want to be able to taste the dish more than I want to have like a wine that's going to like completely clear my palette. And I think the raising does that more than >> wine number three.

But we also haven't tried wine number three. >> We haven't tried wine number one yet. >> I think we were wrong. I think the Gruner is probably the best the [music] best bet. >> Don't speak for me. Anyway, >> we chose it with the smacked cucumber salad because it's got these sort of green notes, but it's not overly acidic or tart.

It has a softness to it that can be a really nice combination uh with the chili in a smack cucumber salad. >> It compliments everything the most. >> You don't wash away. You still get the spice. You still get all the flavor.

You still get a taste like the nuttiness. There's like nice fat there. Um, and you still get to actually taste the wine, which is really nice. >> So, I think there's like a little bit more complexity throughout like actually tasting wine, number one, where like >> number two kind of like clears everything.

Number three kind of overpowers. So, like if you're looking to drink more wine, then like if you're like worried more about like what you're drinking than you are eating, I would say go number three. But like I think number one probably is like [music] the the best for all of it.

It almost feels like the grun has got a little le to it like a little creaminess. It neutralizes the spice on the back palette a little like doesn't make it as sharp. [music] But I think you get a taste more of the stuff like you taste the chilies. You can taste like each individual piece of the dish which is like really nice.

All comes like together really well. >> Yeah. >> And then like you add that wine where like [music] it might dull down the spice but you get to taste everything which is really nice. >> I agree with chef actually. Justin's monologue on the whole wine pairing was kind of spot on and I can't argue with it because he nailed all points of all three wines. >> Do you have a favorite of these wines of this dish? >> Oh my gosh. Should I try?

Can I try? >> Yeah. [music] >> All three of the wines because they're dry permit the spice to stay. [music] If you picked any off dry or sweet wines, it would really dampen the the heat. If you like that chili spice, [music] the best pairing is going to be the Gruner for me. If you want it to be a little bit more neutral, my favorite is the Rezling. >> If you want to drink more, you drink the Savon Blanc.

If you want something to compliment the whole dish, the Grunfelina. The Rezling is my favorite. >> I think I think the Gruner wins. [music] Yeah, Gruner for sure wins. >> My favorite pairing is wine number two. >> Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you for having us um and taking the time out of your day, the Hey Kiddo crew. >> Thank you for coming to Hey Kiddo.

Thank you to the team at Somebody People [music] for trying three blind wines from our collection. >> Carolyn, thank you so much. Yeah. Yeah.

We really appreciate it. Chef, thank you. Uh >> assistants, thank you >> everyone.

Appreciate it. [music] Camera Chris, thank you. Come to Hey Kido. It's really really great institution here in Deborah.

The 12th time we've been stopped. >> Yeah, the 12th time. Yeah, definitely the 12th time.