Episode 2

Hello and welcome back to Three Blind Wines, the Japanese style game show/wine show where we give two hospitality professionals three wines, hence the title. We ask them to try and guess the grape, where they're from, how much they cost. Today we have two roaringly amazing people to taste the wines.

We have I'm Justin Freeman, father of two, professor of delicioso. I'm the executive chef of Somebody People, an amazing chef here in Denver. And I'm back at three blind wines.

We also have Patrick H. Hot. Hotton, owner of Wine Down Selections in Denver, Colorado.

Basically has taught me everything I know about wine. He's a desert legend and also a father of two. I'm here to partake in somebody people's three blind wines.

The wines today I went really for this kind of French wine paired with a kind of springtime pasta. So the springtime pasta obviously we're moving into spring. So you've got asparagus peas, English peas, snap peas, all those gorgeous little flavors which are coming out of the ground now after about 6 months of just sweet potato and potato and pumpkin that we've had here in Denver.

Way everyone feels it's a cooler climate. Mineral driven nose chuck smells pretty light. say I smell a lot of green apple. There's a little green tint to it and sort of a herbaceiousness too.

Some stainless steel, underripe lemon, tart green apple skin. That's really it. Uh we'll now go for the best part, the tasting.

Definitely old world. Uh despite minerality type of wine it is. Say this wine is pretty lightbodied, a low acidity.

There's a nice roundness to it on the back end when you like take your breath. High acid, quick and fast, not a lot of barrel if any here. Probably stainless steel fermentation.

If there is barrel, it's neutral just for a texture play. The stainless steel has been used a couple times for sure. Lots of citrus.

Pretty tasty. Lower in alcohol. Tears fade pretty quick.

Um, definitely old world, cooler climate. I would say this is a French wine. Uh, actually, no, it's an Italian wine.

Possible varietals in the set could be anything from Shard Savon to Shenon, but I don't get a lot of that Shenanes quality from it. Since it's so crushable, it's a fr. Final projection here on what it's not or what it could be or what I'm completely going to miss.

It's a oldw world wine, cool climate just cuz acids there, low alcohol, mineral tension, three varietals that could be in the old world, Savon, Shannon, or Shard from France. But I believe it's Savian Blanc from Sans Ser 23 Vintage or Pu Fume that's made pretty well. This wine is Italian.

It's my guess it's Fui and it's crushable. This wine I would probably pay $25 to $30 a bottle. $328.50 $32. Sonair from France.

Calcaria soils is grown in 2022 I believe is the vintage but just a cool little racy little Son and everyone loves a bit of Sabon Blanc at the end of the day. It's a good wine. I drink it.

Wine number two comparatively to wine number one uh is a little deeper in color concentration in the glass. The second wine we'll be tasting is definitely a little darker. I'd say there's like a tint of bronze to this sort of uh gold or pale gold if you will.

Moderate staining of the tears. So if the tears are slower down the glass, we might have a warmer area for wine production. If it's faster down the glass, lower alcohol and a cooler area for wine production.

And this guy seems to be moderately staining. So we could be in a warmer area of wine production. mineral content is a sort of like turned earth uh if you will in a sense of um gravel and stone. There's definitely a little oak to this one for sure.

Very fruit forward as well. I'd say barrel. I'm not getting too much from oak if any um intense vanilla or like cinnamon toasty plays like that.

So could be a moderate and use a barrel or stainless. I got a little bit of strawberry like lightly cooked a little bit like sweet masseration. Smell grapes. all the grapes.

The wine has a little more tartness than the nose gives off. So, reconfirming that sort of apple skin, yellow apple, a little peach, maybe some pineapple notes. Let's go for tasting.

This is definitely heavier on the palette. Nice low acidity in the back ends. It's definitely really round and pretty robust. gravel or chalky minerality.

Does have a little bit of alcohol, so it puts me into maybe the new world or a riper vintage oldw world wine. You can definitely taste the oak throughout. I don't know.

Maybe the new world, which is uh like California or Oregon. Could be Australian. This is California Chardonnay with a little bit of oak barrel.

Final answer, California Chardonnay, Central Coast, minimal oak influence due to just the higher alcohol and just the texture of the wine. Probably on the higher ends, like really expensive. I would say 45. $23 for this bad mama jama.

Um, it needs food though. I believe it's really nice. What would you agree with?

Lobster for my fellow New Englanders. I found this cheeky little coaton over at Tino wine store which is on South Broadway. Gorgeous vion ganache blanc.

Little rousand thrown in. Little round flavors kind of trying to bring out a little bit of sweetness to kind of combine with the roaring acidity of the pasta. Roaring acidity of the pasta.

I got that a little wrong. It's not roaring. I would say just lemon acidity of the pasta.

I do think that Karon Blanc is the wine of the summer. Maybe I'm proved right. Maybe I'm proved wrong.

Keep watching and see what comes out. We'll do wine number three, which is a red. Oh, this one's really weird.

Let's just be real about wine number three. It's a head fake off the bat cuz it's a very pale pigment red wine that could be probably served slightly chilled. Lightbodied red.

The smell is all over the place. It's almost looks like a very heavy rosé, but it it is red. It's pretty funky.

I'm have zero clue what this is going to be, but we'll try it out. Pale pale ruby to orange almost pink on the water band. Quick staining of the tears.

So thin skin varietal, cooler climate. I get like rhubarb. I get early like unripened red fruits.

Lots of bright red fruit though. Rhubarb, cherry, raspberry, palm skin, yeast on the nose. You can smell like a little bit of that lower intervention uh type thing going on here, which I think is okay cuz it's not faulted in any way.

There's definitely like a little funk going on. I I have no clue. So, let's taste it, I guess.

Woo. Uh, palette is uber tart. It's definitely like medium to light body.

There's a little bit of acidity. The tannins are really light. Bright bright bright red fruit, cherries, plum skin, raspberries.

There's definitely like this funk that like hits your palette all the way through. It's probably like the first thing you taste and then it kind of like becomes unripened strawberry and that like acidity point where it hits your palette. It's really tasty actually.

Good acid. trying to figure out if it's old or new just depending on the fruit profile because the fruit itself is very very tart, not ripe. Believing it's more a cool climate, but it could be picked early just for sharpness of fruit. Very well made.

The red fruit just keeps on popping. I don't really know what wine this would be, so I'm going to go uh Czech Republic. If the Czech Republic makes a Zinfendel, that's what this is.

I don't really know. Gam pino blend maybe sharp red fruit staying in the tears pretty quick cool climate but uh New World California uh maybe thin skin varietals like g pina noir blend maybe a couple other things thrown in there minimal barrel Czech Republic the grape I don't know I'm saying Zinfendel $25 for your drinking pleasure this week 21 next week 25 is the bottle price and I think it's a pretty fun wine to drink. It's It's really funky.

I believe that I could not be correct on any of them, but that's the whole fun of this this purpose of this game. Czech Republic definitely doesn't do Zinfendels, but that's the only and Zimpendidels aren't that that like this this color, but you know, I would say that G at the moment is still one of the wines that I drink the most of. I just love fresh light reds that have different complexities and aromomas.

And I spoke to Dave over Deino and he said that this Justin Dutra Bojlet 2023. He's only got a couple bottles left, but is an amazing little wine and it is it's incredible. It's just like so bright with fruit, but it's got this underlying ricity to it.

Great acidity, pale in color. It's kind of like it looks kind of weak in the glass, but the flavors are so strong. It's almost like Jimmy Superfly met King Kong Bundy.

Wine number one. What do you think it is? My guess is Italian freely.

I think it's a porch pounder for sure. Same. It's a porch pounder, but I got uh Savon from Sanser.

It's got those like shervel and chive notes on the nose and it's got a quick hit of acid. Goes away, but it's crushable for sure. The thing I liked about this wine is probably the habaceiousness about it.

It's like it's got a very citrusy. Yes, it's got that kind of fullness that you might see in like a Frei wine, but um definitely that herbaceious on the nose characteristic, which is kind of what I wanted to bring out in the in the dish. I didn't get the citrus.

I just got I guess so now after you incepted me, I got like green apple like green fruits for sure. I got this kind of lime zest to it. Yeah.

Lemon. Oh. Oh.

Franis Sunset from La Valley. I was going to say from Sunset. So, Savia Blanc.

Uh, this producer is 10th generation out of the L Valley. Just a great little wine I feel on Cockarious soils. They do a Silux wine as well with Savian Blanc, 100% Savian Blanc.

Fab. I reckon I could drink that every summer afternoon dinner. Uh I love the approachability of it.

I just dig the kind of herbaceious acid driven freshness that makes your afternoon sing like Mary Papa kind of I reckon just like rave techno sing you know believe in me. I think it's a great wine. Really lovely.

How much did you want to spend on this wine? I think I was like 28 2850 I think is where it was. 32 I think. 32. Cool.

It's around $45. Yes, it's up there. $45 Sarin cost. So good though.

Wine number two. What do you think? I was uh texturally New World Chardonnay without a lot of oak.

I felt the weight was there and the fruit was pomacy. Um I really couldn't take myself anywhere else. I definitely said New World chart, too.

Oh, really? Got to be correct. A little bit of oak on the back end.

And then this is like what every old lady loves dreams about. Peach Melba. All the grapes.

Wine number two. What is it? Camera Chris.

Oh swinging in this. Yes. Oh jeez.

All right. Oh, these are neat. I've seen Yeah.

Kotaron Blanc. I do reckon Kotarone Blanc is going to be the wine of the summer. It's my bowl call.

I think more people should drink [ __ ] or ran whites because they're incredible. I think this is a 2021 Giam Gonet connections with this wine. His wife is Australian.

It is a blend of vion ganache blancc and a little bit of rousand thrown in for a bit of texture and measure. Yeah, that's the way. Um, vion traditionally you get this kind of really ripe kind of apricot kind of characteristic.

There's a hint of apricot on the on the on the nose, but really I think it's it's a little fresher style. Um, it's probably the cheapest wine on the It is the cheapest wine on the line lineup. What did you say?

How much? I think I was in that 20-ish price point uh for Chardonnay. Coerone Blanc.

We might have to switch it up. Uh, but one other wine I don't drink a lot of. So, uh, I think I was on 28. 28.

Cool. $12 a bottle. Just over 12 to $13. Oh yeah, fabulous little hence you could drink this also.

Had us going on that one. Yeah, I thought I'd just throw that in. I was going to go like this hermitage balanc for 78 bucks, but then you know $12.

They they produce a lot of this wine. Okay. Uh so it's definitely um stainless steel try to retain the freshness which hence kind of takes out those kind of aromatics of the apricot.

No oak. Yeah, it's just 100% stainless. The weight like the sharp weight.

So yeah, but I wasn't looking for a I mean coach bl isn't a bad core at all. Uh New World Shard because like I mean if you get a shard made from the River Riverland in Australia, you're getting that kind of style where it's it's more about the fruits, about the roundness, but still it's made in this stainless steel kind of try to retain the freshness, but you do use a little bit of kind of wine making trickery to get that kind of wine. Oh yeah, but cracking wine missing it.

All right, wine number three. I had no idea. The the smell um completely confused me.

So I took a long guess and I went check just because I think it's like really weird. Yeah. Yeah.

Um and that's been like my whole Eastern European um like wine uh like ever tasting them. So um I don't know what grape it was. I just I took a huge guess on Zimpadel, but I'm I'm going to guess.

But there are some Zimpendels in the Neuro that are like super pale and light like this one. It was good though. I don't know what you'd pair this with.

I think it's like just drink it by yourself and I I I have no clue what kind of food you want to eat this with. It's like mushroom morels Netflix and chill kind of wine. I don't know.

This is like a This is also like the first one. Absolutely crushable in mid Denver heat. Yeah.

Super bright red fruits. Good acid. What do you think is like rhubarb pie with this?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It's got all the red fruit. It's got all the rhubarb berry fruit. Sweetness might dominate it.

What is it? One and three. Probably savor this though, man.

All right. Dra, [Music] very good wine. Justin Dutra.

Uh Bojlet 2023 comes from uh a rich family within Bojlet. Uh his father is an amazing producer and his father helped him uh kind of source these vineyards. But I think I think I just think it's so bright and attractive.

It's like it's kind of sings out of a glass. You do get those kind of bojlet characteristics to it. A little bit of kind of earthy rusticity to it.

No secondary though. A lot of the new Boj's got a lot of secondary second. The super fizz.

Yeah, this stuff's pretty clean. Yeah, it is super clean. Um, definitely done in the natural style, but like the color was surprising.

Yeah, but super pale. It's like it's uh 23. Yeah, it's good. 23. 23.

Yeah. Drink the I'm going to change my um I'm going to say this is the best because I think it's a strong name with Justin on the back of it. say that that is probably my fave. The name sold me.

Yeah. Yeah. Totally.

Totally. And that's why I chosen one actually just to come down to you at Deino as well for God, I got to remember now. I think it was about $30. 30 bucks at Yeah.

So, great little wine. Um there's only limited stock. So, if you want to run down there and grab a bottle, maybe the last bottle you find in the 23 vintage.

Thank you for coming and thanks for doing the lineup. Now, we're going to check to see if my uh sumelia skills uh which are very lacking at the best times uh actually compare a little dish for these wines. So, for all three, uh we'll just see what's best.

You know, maybe all three, maybe they all have like little highlights or maybe they're all who knows and you're like, you should have you should have done a Barasa sh instead. I'll go get the food. Thanks.

Spring is upon us. We're trying to work out some little spring pastas. I love spring.

Green vegetables, the freshness, peas, asparagus, spinach is really good at the moment to combine that with a little bit of pasta, a little bit of feta. I are kind of going into that kind of realm. I was thinking is that we've got a fresh pasta made with those things, spinach and asparagus, a little whipped soy feta over the top, and let's see if the wines pair.

I'm into it. You like it? Okay.

Yeah, it looks really pretty. Dig in, lads. [Music] Super tasty. Yeah, it's really springy.

Um, I like all the flavors are going on. Uh, wine. I would have to say the rone is gonna be the best choice for this just from first bites.

Yeah. Let's go second bite. Is that brownness?

Mhm. Ro actually does work. Yeah.

Spring is usually like really sweet and there's a nice acidity to everything. So I think the sincere might overkill it because it's a little too acidic. The red's actually really good. sort of the stem in the booulet which is sort of the greenness the brightness of it cuz the acid pushes uh that dish pretty well balances.

These two actually work very well. Sunshare works good, but this actually works a lot. Yeah.

Just because of the weight. The weight's really nice. And then the slight sweetness that's on the on the red uh really helps bring out some of like the natural sweetness in like the overwintered spinach and and the asparagus.

Like this time of year, everything from like all the snow that's still left up has like a natural sweetness to it. Helps with stuff like that bojlet or the or the the kota. But while you're thinking about this, you should have a bottle of sansair first.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Totally. Although, weirdly enough, the sunset was a late inclusion. I was gonna go Shabli.

Maybe my wine of the summer is actually my wine of the spring. I would say the winner drinking by itself or with the food? With the food.

You're say I go kosh. I'd go the Coke. Oh, divided.

Love it. It's good. a little bit. It's good to have a little bit of controversy here on three bottom lines.

Love it. All right. Cool.

Thank you. Cool. Thanks, S.

All right. All right. Uh, we'll do it again.

Uh, editing is key [Laughter] here. Not even close. Hello.

It's going to be cinema gold. Chef of two. Ah, chef of two.

Father of two. Did you Oh, wait. Can I do it again?

Hold that. [Music] I'm just [ __ ] delayed before. One and a two and a three. This is like a good party trick one, huh?

Like you bring out you're just like guess what I got today. It was like game pino in my head, but I couldn't take myself to crew cuz I was just drinking a crew producer that I was in that was in town on Friday or Thursday. Yeah.

And they were different, but like it's super translucent.