Odell’s Bagel / The Counter

Today's host is Paul Lyss, partner in Benny and Zoid Selections. The location is Odell's Bagel in Denver. (Singular bagel, not plural — this gets corrected on camera multiple times.) The contestants are Sam and Justin from Somebody People. The dish is vegan handrolls — a collaboration between Odell's and Somebody People that takes the Japanese handroll format and runs it through a vegan kitchen.

The wines

Wine one was the restrained one — a wine Sam described as "a very shy person trying to order something at a restaurant." Soft greens, yellow apple, dandelion, white flower, a little salinity, mineral directness. Old-world energy. Sam worked through the deductions: not Sauvignon Blanc (not herbaceous), not Italian (not enough texture), maybe Mediterranean — Albariño? Muscadet? Reveal: Vermentino, with all the right Mediterranean tells.

Wine two was a richer, more textured white. Stainless-steel ferment, a little skin contact, complex. The tasters landed on something Italian — Fiano, maybe — and the reveal confirmed an Italian white from Campania.

Wine three was a Greco-style white, the kind Justin keeps using in pairings against his own dishes. "That herbaceous note, the tartness from the ume — it's going to go great with the chiso, the Fiano," Justin said, which is the kind of sentence Justin has been making since the show started.

The pairing

Depends on which roll you're eating. The Greco wins for the chiso-and-yuzu rolls. The Vermentino wins for the simpler vegetable rolls. The third wine wins for the tofu-based ones. "It just kind of goes back to what you're in the mood for and what you're feeling," Justin said.

Paul Lyss was generous about it. "It was truly an amazing experience to be able to taste these outstanding cultish producers from Italy." The producers stayed anonymous on camera, but Paul has the import paperwork.

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