Somebody People

Episode one. The format gets established on camera — "Three Blind Wines, the food and wine game show where no one really wins anything, but two contestants get to taste three blind wines, and then they pair them with a dish that I've chosen, and then they get to judge me on my food pairing." The contestants are Abby Minon, certified sommelier ("a beautiful wine professional here in Denver") and Justin Freeman, executive head chef of Somebody People.

The dish is a traditional pasta pomodoro with a Sicilian twist — orange zest and Calabrian chili. I picked the wines myself, which is the slight novelty of episode one. (In later episodes the somm-of-the-day picks. We figured that out fast.)

The wines

Wine one was a honey-waxy yellow, golden — yellow apple, overripe Anjou pear, a slight caramel-candy-wrapper note, medium body, present acidity. Cool climate. Likely French. Abby worked through the deductions: not Riesling, maybe Chenin Blanc from the Loire, in the $30-$40 range, French so probably expensive. "Twenty-eight a bottle. No. Forty-two." Justin nodded at the analysis.

Wine two was a bright red, almost translucent garnet — rose petal, cranberry, lingonberry, tart-cherry-cola, light tannin, high acid. "Earthy, almost like potting soil, button-mushroom palate," Abby observed. A touch of brett. Walking-through-the-fall energy. Possibly a young Pinot, possibly something with a little funk in the winemaking.

Wine three was the structural counterpoint to wine two — fuller, fruitier, a richer body that could stand against the tomato sauce.

The pairing

The white paired with the pasta in a way that surprised the chef. "The tomato is rich and present, and the white kind of holds up to it," Justin said. "After taking a sip of it, the spice really comes through. You really get the sugars from the tomatoes."

The red also worked as a pasta partner — "this is full-bodied enough to hang with the pasta dish." Wine two — the lighter, funkier red — got eliminated. "It's a little lighter than the tomato sauce, you kind of lose out on it."

Both Abby and Justin agreed: wine one (the Chenin) and wine three (the bigger red) both work. Wine two is the loser of episode one. The Chenin Blanc was the surprise of the night.

Episode one. In the can. The food and wine game show where no one really wins anything continues.