SOMM 3 (2018) - full transcript

[dramatic music]

[horn honks]

- You know, how people taste,

and what wines are next to each
other can oftentimes change

how the wine next to it
is smelling and tasting.

- It's not easy to blind taste.

- The fear of blind tasting
is basically being wrong.

- I'll tell you what, I
mean I've been fooled.

- I think the most random

that we could try to
make this, the better.

- If you enjoy wine,



there's nothing to be
gained by blind tasting

because I think wine's all
about its history and its place.

- So wine one, is the glass
closest to you on the left.

Two, three, four, five, six.

- Well, we blind taste
each other for games.

- For bragging rights
and all of that.

- I got it right, I'm
the greatest. [cheers]

- In that style, I mean
it's a parlor trick.

- I love blind tasting and
it's not a parlor trick.

- [Carole] It's useful in
only rare circumstances.

If you're a scientist
trying to study

the effect of some
variable on wine,

then certainly you
wanna taste it blind.

- There's some wine critics
who have to taste blind,



particularly if they're
working for a publication,

take sponsorship.

- You know, when I
was buying wines,

we'd taste everything blind.

- When I was a sommelier,
the way I bought wine

was if I nailed the
wine, nailed the price,

I would then buy the wine.

- You're not biased
by the producer,

by any score or
what you've heard,

or what you think that you
should think about this wine.

- You know, the naked wine.

- [Carole] When you remove all
people's preconceived notions

about the origin of a wine,

you get an assessment
that's very, very different

than the assessment that you get

if people are looking
at the bottle.

- [Madeline] But 40 years ago,

a blind tasting
changed the world.

[crickets chirping]

[operatic music]

[metal clanking]

- The wine industry has boomed

at an exponential rate
in the last 40 years.

- In the US, the wine industry
is a $220 billion business.

- [Narrator] 85 years ago,

wine was illegal to make and
sell, right up until 1933.

There was no industry.

- For the first
several thousand years

of humans making wine, they
simply collected grapes

and crushed them and
did very little else,

and I think that it's
only in the last century

that people really
started to learn

how to manage the
wine making itself.

- [Madeline] For wine to
change it had to be challenged,

and we've people
to thank for that.

On the one hand, you've got
the seekers, the explorers,

who go out and find where there
is great wine in the world

that's never been found before,

and they bring that
wine to the critics,

and the critics get together,
they disagree or they agree,

and they make a lot of noise,

and then you've got the
sommeliers and the resellers

who deliver the
actual bottle to you.

So much of what we
know about wine today

was built on the work
of just a few people,

and three of those people
are getting together

in Paris to taste the
wines that changed them.

- Arguably three of the
most important people

who have ever been involved
with the world of wine.

- [Madeline] They're all
big voices, but they're also

in a lot of times, they're
conflicting voices.

- These guys made
wine what it is today.

[operatic music]

- [Laura] She might be

the most influential
wine critic in the world.

- To make it clear, I've never
been in the wine business.

I've never had any connection
with the wine trade,

never worked in the wine trade,

and I've worked very, very hard

to sort of keep my hands clean.

- Jancis has had a
huge influence on me.

I mean, some of the books
that she's written have been

part of my library
since almost day one.

- She wrote The Oxford
Companion to Wine,

which is the most
comprehensive wine encyclopedia

that the world has ever seen.

- In regards of what
region I was studying,

if there's a term I didn't know,

I could go to that one
resource, The Oxford Companion,

and I could find the definition
of whatever that word was.

- [Jancis] My children tease me

that The Oxford Companion
is my fourth child. [laughs]

- Jancis meant to wine what
Julia Child did to food.

She brought a beautiful
joy and enthusiasm to it

that made the world of wine fun.

- If she says good
things about your wine,

people notice that.

- [Virginia] If she
doesn't like a wine,

she's got no problem
in saying it upfront,

so she's petrifying to do
a tasting with. [laughs]

Her opinion matters, I
mean she's a serious woman.

- [Host] It's now my honor

to invite Jancis
Robinson to the stage.

[applauding]

- I think probably
I've done a little bit

to make employers feel
that female employees

in the world of wine should
be given absolutely their due.

Wherever this
award is being held

and for whichever country
we would be for it,

but particularly for Australia
because you have to admit,

the Australian wine scene

has been pretty male
dominated for quite a while.

- You're talking about the
10 or 20 people in the world

whom are probably
instinctive tasters,

where they're sort of born
with a very high level of gift,

and I mean, she's on of 'em.

- Women are better tasters,
better blind tasters for sure.

We have a sensory memory
that men don't have,

- There are lots of scientific
studies that suggest

that women actually taste
more accurately than men,

but it's a very male thing

that competitive
blind tasting, yeah.

[dramatic music]

- We're gonna do a little
blind tasting today,

and I'm in the latter
part of my career,

so today we'll see what
few skills I have left.

- There's incredibly
famous stories about Fred.

More people know of
the legend of Fred Dame

than have tasted with Fred.

- Fred is one of the
best blind tasters

I've ever met in my life.

- He was in Seattle.

Everyone's blind tasting
an old bottle of Madeira.

He puts his nose in the glass
and says, "This is 1905."

- I've never really gave Fred
a flight, you know, of wine.

- Jay is competitive as
hell, and Fred is as well,

so I'd love to see that.

- I decided to pick a couple
things with some age, right?

Because age kind
of masks things.

- Probably like
the scene in Heat,

you know, when you have
like De Niro and Pacino

sitting down having
coffee together.

[knocking]

- [Jay] Hold on, not just yet.

- [Man] How many
Master Sommeliers

does it take to decant
a bottle of wine?

- Apparently more than one.

You always wonder, you know,

how your skills have
done as time marches on,

as gravity takes hold
of your body, right?

- Fred likes to win. [laughs]

Come on in Fred, let's have
a glass of wine, buddy.

- Oh, let's not.

I'm a little old
for this, you know?

[groans] gosh.

- I think you're pretty
good, but I bet you,

you'd call these white wines.

- Chardonnay, Riesling.

Thank you.
- Done, thank you.

Done, you pass.
[laughing]

- Fred Dame is the grandfather

of the American
sommelier business.

- [Laura] He is the
best hospitality,

restaurateur, sommelier.

- [Man] I don't think wine
in restaurants would be

where it is today if it
weren't for someone like him.

- The big wine list
with the teaching,

with the training.

He really reshaped the landscape

of not only
California wine lists,

but wine lists throughout
the United States.

- Oh, I think I
deserve all the credit.

- I picked the Guigal
Chateau d'Ampuis Cote-Rotie.

This is a classic wine
from the Rhone Valley.

It's Syrah with a
little bit of Viognier.

The trick on that wine is
it's got the new oak on it,

so it could be misleading
and take him somewhere else.

The other trick on that wine
is that it's a 1995 vintage.

So here we got a
22-year-old wine.

- Alright, well, I can tell you

whoever decanted these
did one crap job.

[laughs]

'Cause I got a big chunk
of cork floating in mine.

It looks like you
used a chainsaw.

- [Jay] That's all
I had, a chainsaw.

We're in Montana.
- Okay.

[laughs]

- I broke it down
with a chainsaw,

threw some wood chips in there.

- Point number one, the
viscosity is very, very good.

It's going a little garnet
from center to the rim.

It's got a little watery rim,

which tells me the
glycerol's a little high.

Well, it's really peppery,

and really smoky,
and really meaty,

but really, really well crafted.

This wine seems to
be showing some age.

It smells like a Rhone wine.

I mean, that's what
it smells like.

I'd put it [sighs]
in Northern Rhone.

I'd say Cote-Rotie or Hermitage.

Cote-Rotie is kind
of what I really like

'cause it's so
peppery and meaty.

Very high quality producer.

- So final call Cote-Rotie.

What's the final vintage call?

- There is some,
I'd give it '95.

[laughs]

- That's pretty good, Fred.

That's pretty good.

[bright classical music]

[plates clanking]

- Honey, we got some cheese?
- Yep.

- [Steven] Well, I need
two more side plates.

I'll get them out
of the dishwasher.

It looks nicer with
the side plates.

- [Bella] Oh, okay.

[water pouring]

- It shows I'm house trained.

[Bella laughs]

- He's very house trained,
all to do with his mother.

It's always to do
with people's mothers.

[laughing]

- I've never minded washing
up and I'm incredibly tidy.

Tidiness is next to godliness.

- Oh rubbish, anyway
I'm not tidy at all,

[Steven laughs]

which is a good mix.

[bright classical music]

Steven has been the mentor of
so many famous people in wine.

He is, I won't say obsessed,
but he is in his world.

It is his thing.

It just has been his
life, it always will be.

- I'm not a mathematician,

but I tend to drink at least
a bottle of wine a day.

So that's, let's say 400 a
year, and let's say 55 years.

You calculate it out.

- You know, there's
kind of a thing

in the sommelier
community today,

where you go and you
find the weirdest wine.

Well, Steven Spurrier
kind of started all that.

He was always a champion
of the underdog.

- Steven had a small
empire in Paris,

and we all used
to hang out there.

It was...

How can I put it?

It was I suppose you'd
say in today's language,

it was where it
was all happening.

He had a wine school

with excellent, excellent
people who taught there.

He had a retail shop,
and he had a restaurant.

- Definitely something to be
inspired by and look up to.

- I mean Steven
Spurrier is a legend.

- Especially me coming over

from the restaurant side
and getting into retail.

[light music]

- If I'm known for anything,
it's the Judgment of Paris.

Probably the most famous wine
event in the last 50 years.

[laughs]

[bright music]

- [Carole] It was a time
when New World wines

were beginning to emerge
on the world wine market,

but there were a lot
of people who thought

that they would never
match the Old World wines

that had been
around for so long,

on which the wine market
was based at that time.

- Steven Spurrier brought

the best California
wines of the day,

and put them against the
best French wines of the day.

- At that stage, the wine
world knew Bordeaux chiefly.

- So we invited the
nine best palates

in France over a wide spectrum.

- 90% of all the judges

never tasted a
California wine before,

so they had no perception of
what California was capable of.

- So we said, "Okay, I've
gotta put in the French wines

"side by side with
these Californians,

"or they won't
take it seriously."

- Nowadays blind tasting,

everyone just assumes
it happens all the time.

It was totally new,
really, back then.

- [Narrator] He was hoping
that one of the wines

would come in top five
in either category

and saying, "Hey, let's pay
attention to California wine."

- Well, the rest is history.

- California wines ended up
topping the Chardonnay category

and Cabernet Sauvignon category,

which I think blew
everyone's mind.

- We went up against the very,
very best stuff and we won.

- And then all hell broke loose.

- Shit happens.

- He never knew they were
going to win, no one did.

- [Bella] I don't think
either of us realized

the implications at the time.

- [Madeline] Congress
has it listed

as an actual historical event.

You can see the bottles
in The Smithsonian.

- And that changed the world.

They weren't just
a joke anymore.

They weren't just the
upstart Americans.

We were a threat.

- [Jancis] Several French
suppliers contacted us

and said they would
never speak to us again.

I mean, people were
horrible to the judges,

and they were very loyal
to Steven, the judges.

- [Madeline] The
actual event itself,

it didn't seem
important at the time,

but the fallout of
the Judgment of Paris

is really the thing.

- The fact that it
was a blind tasting,

they weren't competing with
the history and the heritage,

and all the glory of
Bordeaux and Burgundy.

They were competing
on their merits.

- It got the East Coast to say,

"Hey, maybe there are some
good wines in California.

"Let's start selling
their wines."

- We owe our
existence, if you will,

to the Judgment of Paris 1976.

- That's crazy, like now
we think of Napa Valley

and it's like one of the best

wine producing
regions in the world.

- The biggest thing that
happened was the prices went up.

I was bummed.

I was buying the stuff
for nothing, man.

- [Ian] It caused an explosion
on the business front.

Absolutely everybody
made more money.

- With Bordeaux, which were
the Cabernet based wines

in France, there was already
a classification system

of the best wines in the world,

and so they chose the
first growths of Bordeaux.

One of the really interesting
aspects was they didn't choose

the most famous California
wineries at the time.

- [Steven] I could've easily
put in Mondovi, I knew him,

but his wasn't wine I was after.

- [Narrator] They
chose artisanal,

family run very high
quality producers.

It's not all about Napa, I
mean if you think about Ridge,

that's Santa Cruz Mountains,
which are much further south.

- I made the wine that
was in the tasting.

It was my, let's see, one, two.

It was my third wine that
I made here at Ridge.

- All the famous wineries today

were like minuscule back then.

When you call
Ridge and you know,

the VW van would come down,

all the smoke would
come pouring out like,

"Dude, are you the
man that bought,

"did you order
five cases of Zin?"

I go, "I did."

"Cool man.

"You wanna taste
some other stuff?"

"Yeah come in.

"We've got some other stuff
in the van here, man."

- Every wine in that
tasting had a story.

- [Narrator] You look
at Chateau Montelena,

that was a wine
made by Mike Grgich,

a Croatian refugee who came
to the United States in 1958

with 35 American dollars

that he stashed in
the sole of his shoes.

So this is a guy
who put everything

to try to capitalize
on the American Dream.

It was Clos Du Val's
first vintage making wine,

and to enter into that
with that tasting is huge.

[upbeat jazzy music]

- So I'm at this event, right?

- 18,000 now, one more?

Hey 19,000 and 19, go 20?

- Where everyone in the
business goes once a year

to buy auction lots of wine,

and we're talking hundreds of
thousands of dollars dropped

in a matter of moments

over these very precious
bottles of wine.

- All done, sold $32,000.

- [Madeline] If you were
seriously tasting there,

you would taste 360 or so
lots of Cabernet wines.

Your teeth would be
so purple. [laughs]

I'm in the tasting.

Everyone's here.
- Everybody's here.

- And I go to the
back, and boom!

It's Steven Spurrier.

Steven effin' Spurrier is there.

The man who planned
the Paris tasting,

and DLynn Proctor's there.

He is one of the most
well-connected people

in the California wine business.

This guy is the
smoothest operator.

- Great seeing you guys.

Always a pleasure.

- And he's got a bottle
of one of the wines

from the 1976 Paris tasting.

- I pulled on the coattail
of one of my dear friends

who runs Clos Du
Val, and I asked him

if I could the 1972
Judgment of Paris wine.

- [Madeline] No, it doesn't
matter how much money you have,

you can't get the wines
from the Paris tasting.

- You have no idea what
I had to do to get this.

- Yeah, well.
- You'll love it. [laughs]

- I really appreciate it, man.

- Don't drop it.
- Thank you.

Hey Mike.

I gotta clean my teeth, man.

These 16s are so fucking big.

- [Madeline] It's this old room
and it's Steve Matthiasson,

myself, Steven
Spurrier, DLynn Proctor.

They pour out some of the wine
and everyone's sitting there

with a wine that
doesn't exist. [laughs]

Like, you can't get this wine.

- It's more leather.

- It's like horehound
candy and leather.

- Like a more kind off--
- Absolutely.

- high polished leather.

I mean, the fruit is there,

the fruit is backing
the whole thing up,

but you don't sense
cassis or red currant,

yet they're there, but hidden.
- No, no it's totally,

it's all tertiary now.

- But the vigor, yeah,
you're quite right, tertiary.

The vigor, the restrained vigor

in this wine is
quite extraordinary.

- In the '70s,
acidity was prized.

- Absolutely.

- You know, it was a
couple of decades later,

the winemakers felt you needed

to not have as much acidity.
- Not have it.

- For that breadth, but
they wanted the acidity.

- When you think about the
late '70s when this happened,

you put Napa Valley wine,
you put California wine,

on such a global stage,

and the bandwidth just
expanded so greatly.

I mean, does Napa owe you?

- Well, I think there should be

a little street named after me.

I mean, I think
that's a good idea.

[laughing]

I wouldn't take the
Silverado Trail,

but just a little side street.

- [Madeline] I would, yeah.

Steven Spurrier Lane.
- I like that.

- If you were to do this today,

would you still
do the same grape

or would you do
maybe something else?

- If I were doing it again,
I'd probably take Pinot Noir.

[upbeat jazzy music]

[horn honks]

- [Madeline] So
Dustin Wilson goes

from his cushy Eleven
Madison Park restaurant job,

and opens a wine retail store.

- Oh, the glamorous
life of retail.

- You know, in
today's marketplace,

you have to be a
little bit wacky

to wanna open your
own wine store.

It's a dream, I mean, I
would love to do that,

but it takes an amazing
amount of effort,

and everyone's always looking
for the best tasting wine

at the greatest possible value.

- You know, bang for the buck.

- [Madeline] I think a lot
of people look to Burgundy.

- Keep browsing.
- Oh, and what is the lot

on this Pinot Noir?
- [Madeline] What can I get

that is a good as
Burgundy Pinot Noir?

But honestly, those wines
are not really approachable

when it comes to price.

They are expensive.

- If you look at what
Spurrier did with his tasting

back in the '70s and what
that did for California wines,

and it's like if you look
at what is going on today

and you want to have
this similar conversation

with regards to not
just California,

but lots of different
places, very objectively,

I think we've gotten
to a point now

where we can have some
of these Pinot Noirs

from other places in the
world besides Burgundy

be in the same
conversation as Burgundy,

at a very high level.

[bell chiming]

- Pinot Noir has this
distinctness of place.

It's really showcasing the wine.

- It's a plant that grows well,

and it'll make fruit
just about anywhere,

but it won't make good fruit

that'll make good wine
just about anywhere.

- [Narrator] It's
insanely high maintenance,

I mean Pinot is like,

you've had a thin-skinned
friend before,

and you have to handle
them with kid gloves.

Pinot is the same thing.

- [Madeline] It's the
ballerina in the room.

It treads lightly.

- [Laura] It shows exactly

what the producer
wants you to see.

However, you know
because of that

you see every bit
of shit, as well.

- [Carole] It's hard to
make fine wine out of Pinot,

and that's heavily influenced
by where it's grown.

- [Man] If it's too hot,
the grapes will burn.

If it's not the right soil,
they won't yield a crop.

It's very finicky that way.

- [Carole] It's
an early ripener,

so you have to grow
Pinot in a cool place.

- If I saw a label
of California wine,

immediately I would think

this is not on a
par with Burgundy.

This Pinot Noir is not as good

as the French label
I'm looking at.

- Nobody's ever gonna argue

that Burgundy isn't
the greatest place

for Pinot Noir in the world

However, the level at which
other places have increased

the quality of Pinot
Noir globally is crazy.

Like you can get great Pinot
Noir from all over the map now.

- So, Dustin Wilson
sets up this tasting.

For this to actually work,

not only does Dustin
have to curate wines

that he actually thinks can
hold up against the greats,

you gotta have some
amazing palates in the room

with a lot of weight, so
that their opinions matter,

and that what they're
actually saying

is what the best of
the best in the world

would actually believe.

- So, I got a text from Dustin.

I think it was like on
Wednesday, and he said,

"Hey, you wanna come down to
Verve to taste on Sunday?"

A couple days later,
Engelmann calls me and says,

"Oh, you going to be at
Verve on Sunday, too?"

- So Dustin calls us,
this tasting blind.

- And then I start to
get a little suspicious

about what kind of event
they're walking into.

- I really wanted to assemble
the very best tasters.

You need people with that
sort of great credibility

and experience behind them to
give this any sort of weight.

Sabato Sagaria is a
fellow Master Sommelier.

One of the most
hospitality, and business,

and restaurant
visions and minds.

For the last several years,

running all the Danny
Meyer restaurants,

he's now president of Bartaco.

Laura Maniec is joining
us for the tasting.

Laura is the owner of
Corkbuzz here in New York.

She's also a fellow
Master Sommelier,

a phenomenal taster,
badass businesswoman.

Michael Engelmann passed
his Master Sommelier exams

on the first time with
the highest score.

This guy is an animal.

He has got one of
the greatest resumes

of any Master
Sommelier that I know.

So we have Aldo Sohm,

best sommelier in the
world back in '09.

Wine director for Le Bernardin,
a three Michelin star,

four star New York Times
restaurant in Manhattan.

Eric Ripert is the chef
and it's widely considered

one of the very best
restaurants in the world.

Pascaline Lepeltier,

Pascaline is one of the
most respected tasters.

She's originally from France.

She's on of the
biggest supporters

of the natural wine movement.

She is very much what a
lot of young sommeliers

look up to and aspire to be.

I'm also really excited to have
Arvid Rosengren joining us.

Arvid came here to
the US from Sweden.

He kinda came out of nowhere,

won the Best Sommelier
in the World competition

last year in Mendoza.

Everybody's like,
wow, who is this guy?

Lastly, we have Sarah Thomas.

Sarah is a sommelier at
Le Bernardin with Aldo.

She is a rising star.

She brings a little bit of
a more fresh perspective

to a tasting like this.

- Those are among the
best tasters there are

in New York for sure,
if not the country.

- I wanted to try to
make this, you know,

as well rounded as possible.

- [Madeline] Female, male,

Master Sommeliers,
non-credentialed,

but that doesn't mean anything

because these people
are brilliant.

- [Dustin] One Swede,
two French people,

three Americans,
and an Austrian.

- They have a really
great perspective

on what the world
of wine is like,

because they tasted Domaine
de la Romanee-Conti,

and they tasted $10 bottles
of Monterey Pinot Noir.

- Sometimes you get a chance
to be a fly on the wall

in the room when amazing
things are happening.

You don't even realize what
kind of weight they hold.

- We've been a little
secretive about the tasting,

and that's kind of on purpose.

We assembled this group

because you guys are
the best of the best.

This is a blind tasting.

It's all Pinot Noir, but
we're not trying to assess

where it's coming from
or anything like that.

We're not trying
to guess vintages.

It's not that kind of blind
tasting, it's more just,

I wanna get honest
opinions on the wines

without seeing the labels and
knowing where it's coming from

and all that sort of jazz.

So we can be truly
objective with the wines.

At the end of this, I'm gonna
ask you to pick what you think

are your personal top
three wines, and that's it.

- [Madeline] Their
nose, and their tongues,

and their mouths
have been tuned.

A simple question
like hey, you like it?

You're not gonna get
that as an answer.

[light music]

- Okay, so obviously, we have
all the wines decided on.

We have not decided the order
in which to pour these yet.

So I think the way
to do this is really,

try to be as random
as possible, right?

We've got a couple
New World wines

and a couple Old World wines.

There's also like kind of a
pretty stark wine making style.

There's some whole
cluster wines,

and then there's also
some de-stemmed wines.

We're also don't
necessarily gonna launch

with like the most
esteemed wine.

You might wanna bury that
somewhere in the middle.

[sighs]

I don't know,
let's see, maybe...

Maybe we start with something
a little unexpected.

Maybe we can start with Chacra,
Bodegas Chacra is wine one.

[light music]

This little state in Patagonia

is making world
class Pinot Noir,

in this place that
you would never think

you'd even see Pinot Noir.

Initial thoughts?

- It tasted the youngest
and like freshest to me.

Not quite integrated.

- It's funny, on the nose it
smells like really stemmy,

or really like intense,

and then there's a little
heat on the nose, as well,

but like, only when you exhale.

Like the finish is sweet.

- Yeah, it was almost
like gummy strawberry.

- Yeah, sort of--
- Carbonic.

- [Laura] Yeah, carbonic.

- I hope I'm not offending
anyone that I know and respect,

but it kind of feels like a wine

that someone's trying to make
in a really elegant style

in a place where
you maybe don't make

this by, sort of by nature.

- [Dustin] Okay, interesting.

Again, I'm...
[laughing]

- Interesting, right?
- I'm listening to you guys.

- I'm kidding.
- No again,

it's not about being right
or anything, it's about--

- [Michael] Are the
wines gonna be revealed?

- I don't know, maybe.
- In the movie?

- Michael, settle down. [laughs]

So that's whole
cluster New World.

Let's go into a
de-stemmed Old World wine

with the d'Angerville.

[light music]

Marquis d'Angerville is really

I think the gold
standard in Volnay.

This is the V producer that you
wannna showcase from Volnay.

- This one was the
most quiet on the nose,

and then I was surprised

that it had so much
tannin structure,

and it was like it
finished really acidic,

which for me is Old World.

It has this like
chalky minerality,
but at the same time,

the only thing that's
throwing me off

of this like Old Word thing,
is like the sassafras.

Like almost like this
Werther's Original,

like that just like
doesn't belong there.

So I'm not really
sure what's going on,

but I like the wine.

I think it was, you
know, I'd wanna drink it.

I think it's classic.

- It's very pure.

It's expensive oak,
very well managed.

- A very ambitious wine, yeah.

For good hors, but yeah.
- With a lot of polish,

and a lot of forethought.

[dramatic music]

[ducks quacking]

- [Madeline] Everyone
who's in the biz,

and everyone who's a
serious wine enthusiast

has that bottle.

We all have a name for it.

I call it the a-ha wine.

There's something
that happens to you

when you taste this wine that
changes the way you see wine,

and changes how you wanna
be involved with wine.

It gets us on our path.

What are the bottles that got
the people that I look up to,

what got them into wine?

- So right, restaurants
always set right to left.

So because this is off the
knife, and that's your angle.

[clears throat]

- But, if this is--
- Except we've got

the small glass for our wines,
which this is the wrong size.

- Oh, you've got a chip in
your glass, haven't you?

- I think that
needs to be changed.

- How could they give
you a small glass?

- It's because I drink
faster than anybody else.

- Wait a minute, I'm known as
the fastest gun in the West.

[Steven laughs]
- [Steven] Right, okay.

- So I am so looking forward
to tasting this wine,

which is the wine that
lit the flame for me.

I think most people who
end up devoting their lives

to wine have one seminal
bottle, don't they?

And I was an impoverished
student at Oxford,

but I had a rich boyfriend

and his father gave him
slightly too much money,

much of which was spent
on wining and dining me.

If I had said to my Oxford
friends okay, when I graduate,

I'm gonna get a job in
either food or wine,

they would've been
seriously shocked,

and they would've said,

what a waste of a
good Oxford education.

[energetic music]

I was first hired to be a
presenter of what I still think

was the world's first
television series about wine.

It was called The
Wine Programme.

First the champagne,

the best way of ingesting
carbon dioxide in the world.

- We once had lunch
with Tony Blair

when he was prime minister,

and he said that when he and
Cherie were a young couple,

they used to rush back in
the evenings to watch Jancis.

- At that stage, the '80s
were a completely mad decade

for Nick and me.

We got married in '81.

We had our first child in '82.

I made my first
television series.

I think I wrote four books,

at least, in the
'80s if not five.

- And it was also an era

where women couldn't
say no to anything.

They had to take everything on.

- [Jancis] My generation was
absolutely determined to prove

that we could be mothers and
successful career people.

So when the Masters of
Wine said to me in '83,

how about doing the exam in '84?

I should've said no.

Nick said, "For
heaven's sake don't."

All my friends and
family said don't.

I stood to lose so
much more by failing

than I stood to gain by passing.

- I think becoming an
MW was more difficult,

and she was expecting
our second child.

- But much to my amazement,
I did pass the first time.

- [Nick] You know,
a bottle of wine

is a bottle of wine
to most people,

but actually, it's the stories

behind the wine that
she's unearthed.

- It's a red Burgundy, 1959.

The name of the vineyard

is so glorious,
it's Les Amoureuses.

The lovers, the female lovers.

It's been laying for
who knows how long,

in the cellars of
the late John Avery,

a fellow Master of Wine, and
his family, after he died,

they put most of
his wine collection

into Christie's to sell,
but one of them remembered

that this particular
wine was the one

that lit the flame for me, and
held it back from the sale.

- Fantastic.
- which was so nice of them.

- I mean honestly, I can't
imagine having my first bottle

of wine that changes
me being a Burgundy.

You can't even afford it today.

- What's the Vogue
Amoureuses '59 worth?

It's priceless.

I mean, if there
was a dollar there

it probably would
be $10,000 maybe.

- Well, it's certainly a
relic, that's for sure.

[laughing]

- Just like me, a relic.

- What I loved about this
wine when I tasted it,

when I first tasted,
had it in the glass.

Well A, it was a
million times better

than student plonk, obviously.

[laughing]

But it wasn't ridiculously

expensive in those day, I
mean, the price difference

between the top and the bottom

of a wine list wasn't nearly
as great as it is today,

but it was the perfume mainly,
just the haunting perfume.

You're doing so well.

I'm so glad I don't
have to do this.

[light music]

- [Steven] God, what a color.

- It is a marvelous
color, isn't it?

- [Nick] It's amazing.

- What would you call that?

A sort of ruby.

- Garnet.

- Garnet.

- Garnet, garnet, garnet.

- I use garnet more
for slightly bluer,

but it's a personal thing.

Mm, it's rich, isn't it?

Very, that is old
fashioned Burgundy.

- Spectacular.

- [Steven] But
almost, it's floral.

You've got wildflowers.

There's almost a
touch of roses there.

- [Jancis] It is.

There is, isn't there?
- Dry roses, huh?

- Yeah.
- Yeah, yeah.

- You know what fascinates
me about this bottle?

Is that usually when
wines get older like this,

they tend to become
similar as they age,

but this is still Pinot Noir.

It still completely has the
character that you expect

when you open something
spectacular from Burgundy.

- So today, Pinot
Noir is kind of like

the most valuable and
most appreciated variety.

- It is worshiped

because there's so much
history associated with it.

- Sometimes I think
it's stingy and sour.

- My favorite grape on
earth is Pinot Noir.

- Pinot Noir is like
a bad boyfriend,

but you keep going back.

- Then, let's go back
into the New World.

I think maybe Oregon

de-stemmed.
[light music]

Then, we have Larry Stone's
new project Lingua Franca.

Larry Stone's a
Master Sommelier.

He was Rajat Parr's mentor.

Incredibly respected and
even though it's new,

I think it's already becoming

one of the greatest
spots in Oregon.

- [Arvid] I think
wine number three

relates to wine
number two a lot.

Like it's the same kind
of palate of aromas.

- I'm only bothered by the fact

that it smells like
a funeral home,

because it's like
floral and bitter.

[laughing]

I know, it sounds bad
but I'm just like,

I keep going back
and it's like--

- Can I quote you on this one?
[laughing]

- Yeah I mean, I'm sure
they will, but it's like--

- I think it says that on
the back label, actually.

[laughing]

- It's interesting to see a
wine that has been worked on

to get very specific aromatics,

where the structure
is not yet here.

There is a disconnect
between the two.

- It's more distinct, as well.

- I don't know that I agree
that's a worked on aspect.

I think of this as like
a less of a perfect wine,

but I don't know, it resonates
with me more for some reason.

- Let's go on four.
- Let's go on four.

- [Dustin] On to four.

- Let's go to my country.

[laughing]

- I don't know.

I'd be really careful with
those kind of statements.

- Oh, come on.
- I'm just saying, my country.

No, it's funny.

- Which my country now?
- It's amazing.

- I've been in freaking
New York for 10 years now.

- Well, you can claim that--
[laughing]

- [Sabato] New York's
not a country by the way.

- It's this country.

[laughing]

[light music]

- Let's do this
next, so the By Farr.

By Farr is the name of
this particular winery.

They're in an area
called Geelong.

That's a limestone spot
in Victoria, Australia

and I think the wine
just screams like,

fresh, elegant,
finessed, aromatic.

You know, leaning on Burgundy.

- No, she thinks it's French.

- I don't think it's either.

- That's very By Farr.
- Yeah, that makes sense.

- Very By Farr.
- That makes great sense.

- [Sabato] Limestone
in Geelong, Australia.

- But it's very vegetable.
- But it's very vegetable.

- Very vegetable.

That's what it
makes me think of.

- Like a whole cluster.
- That's why,

that's it's very By Farr.
- Yeah.

- I just need to stop
you guys for a second.

He just called the wine.

Not just that it's Pinot Noir,

that it's Australian,
that it's from Victoria,

but the actual bottle of
wine from the producer.

- Let's reel it in instead of
trying to guess what it is,

what are your
thoughts on the wine?

- I mean, it sticks out
in this whole lineup.

It definitely sticks out.

There's a couple of things,
it's extreme in many directions.

- [Michael] It's a strong
philosophy of wine making.

- [Dustin] Say it again.

- It's a very strong philosophy
of wine making in this wine,

whole cluster.

- Whole cluster all
the way through.

- But there's multiple
things, like it's turbid.

At least my glass, it's
turbid, it's whole cluster,

it's very intense
in all aspects.

- Everything's on.

I wrote, first got
everything intense.

It's just like, woo!
- You really tell though.

- And a bit wild.

- I like it, I like the
wild character of it.

- Yeah, it's not afraid of
a point of view with that,

and saying hey, here's
what we're trying to be,

but I do think, you know, that
was one that stood out to me

as being very off the charts

with compared to the other ones.

- At least with this one,
we're either getting drunk,

or it's a wine we have
a lot to talk about.

- Yeah.
- Well exactly.

- [Sabato] Or you just
get drunk and talk a lot.

- Yes.
- Interestingly, I like it.

I like I a lot.
- Maybe it's polarizing.

- No, this is great,
this is exactly what--

- It's supposed
to be polarizing.

- It makes a lot
of sense, though

'cause I feel like the style,

it's a very heart forward
wine, and I mean it's exactly

like what we're talking about.
- I like that word.

- But this would also be one
that I think if you know,

Michael loves this, he
puts it on the list.

How many people can
he make a convert

out of in the dining room?

Like this is, if
you put one on there

and you flesh out a list,

but if you put a whole list
together of these then,

of this style of wine,

that's when I think it
gets a little bit too much.

- I like your comment
about savory though,

and like that wine
doesn't have to be fruity.

It doesn't only have to be

like this fruit
thing or earth thing.

I mean savory is a good quality
to have in a wine with food.

I mean, think about that.

- Wine is a plant first.
- Right.

- And then it's a fruit, so
I'm kind of tired of wines

that just show one
side or the other.

It's great to have both.

- Well, you know what?

That's always a problem.

What we sommeliers
like sometimes

is not what the consumer likes.

What we look on
challenges, and savoriness,

and all this high acid
components, typically,

and again, this
sounds like negative

but it's not meant that way,
the consumer doesn't like.

- Yet, yet, yet.

- They want more smoother wines.

Yeah no, but it's
an evolving thing.

- [Arvid] You have to
recalibrate yourself

once every few months,
you gotta like--

- But you also have to be
an advocate for the guest.

- But if you pour this by the,

if this was your by
the glass Pinot Noir--

- [Laura] If it was your only
Pinot Noir that you have--

- Like, you're fired.
[laughing]

[light music]

- Putting together a
successful restaurant wine list

is incredibly hard.

You have to consider
the business part first,

which is you can't just go out

and buy every single
bottle of wine

so you can have the
biggest wine list.

I mean, really curating
a wine list is like,

you have to have a
lot of fucking talent.

- I picked this wine today
because the '68 Ridge

to me is one of the great
wines from the naissance

of the super premium
California wine industry.

This wine was actually made

not by Paul Draper,
by Dave Bennion.

Dave was a very, very
good friend of mine.

I had dinner with
him on Friday night

before he was killed
in a car accident,

with he and his wife Fran,

I still miss him today.
- That was '88, right?

- '88, yes.

It was sad, sad day.

So we're gonna drink
something today

that is dear to my heart,

because you really
see the beginning.

I mean, who in their lifetime
gets to see the beginning?

[classical music]
[waves crashing]

- [Narrator] Fred was sommelier

at one of the most legendary
restaurants in America,

the Sardine Factory in
Monterey, California.

- Our wine list was
fantastic at the time.

It was all French and
Italian, European,

and the last page in those days,

you're talking about
early '60s, '70s.

The last page were
American wines.

- [Fred] Now that restaurant
was, it was crazy.

It was fine dining, and that
was kind of a new thing for,

I mean there was a few
restaurants in Monterey,

but then and Cannery
Row started booming,

and Ted calls me up and he says,

"I wanna show you something."

He takes me on this beautiful
wine cellar underground.

Gorgeous, huge, empty.

Why don't you come take this
job, come back and fill it up,

and build me the greatest
wine cellar in America?

Pretty good challenge.

- So here was this
guy, big guy. [laughs]

That was just
championing fine wine

and putting it on his list.

Nobody else that I knew of

in this part of the
country was doing.

- We were the first
restaurants in the world.

We took the wines and
incorporated the Cabernets

with the Cabernets in Europe.

We just put 'em
on the same page,

the French and the American,
and the equivalent.

Well, the wine people who
used to do the wine list

said they'd laugh us
out of the business.

I said, "Really?"

I said, "Well, let 'em laugh
us out of the business."

And it became a huge success.

[light music]

- [Man] He built
one of the deepest

and most complex wine lists
that this country's ever seen.

- And of course we won
the Wine Spectator Awards,

and we got all kinds
of recognition under
his leadership.

- [Man] The Wine Spectator
Grand Award is the brass ring

that wine savvy
restaurateurs are going for.

- There was a lot
of competition.

Everybody wanted to be
on that cover every year.

- In order to get a Grand Award,

you have to arguably have

the best example of
a particular region

in your wine list, in the world.

- [Fred] We made it every
year during my tenure.

- There are restaurateurs
that swear by the fact

that their wine profits doubled
the year that they got it.

- [Fred] You had to constantly
keep rethinking, rechanging,

and moving things around,
acquiring new things.

Keeping an eye on new regions
that might be coming along

that you wanna be there first.

- [Jay] Restaurant owners began

to look at wine as
a profit center,

and one of the reasons that
you came to a restaurant,

instead of just something that
helped along with the menu.

- He'd be always be able

to get a deal on
some of these wines,

and, you know, getting wines
at that particular time,

you were able to buy some

very inexpensively that
became very expensive.

- He'd go to Europe
a couple of times,

then he'd come back and I'd
get these huge bills, you know,

you wanna strangle him.
[laughing]

I'd say, "Freddy,
what are we doing?

"We have a wine museum here
or do we have a restaurant?"

One time he bought
a case in Kentfield,

a couple thousand dollars.

I said, "Freddy, what
the heck are you doing?"

He said, "Last night I just a
bottle for 700 or 800 bucks."

I said, "Well good Freddy,
why didn't you buy two cases?"

[laughing]

- I wanna be like Fred Dame.

I wanna have that
wine list that's like,

maybe not as deep
'cause I pay the bills,

but like Sardine
Factory, you know?

- So I think I'm
gonna pull this cork.

What do you guys think?
- I think you should, yes.

And I love these
California Cabernets

from the era before they all
went mad on high alcohol and--

- What's the alcohol
on this wine?

- Didn't I look, is it 12.9?
- 12.7.

- 12.7, isn't that brilliant?
[laughing]

- [Fred] Those were the days.

- [Steven] But they
didn't get into that act

until the mid '80s.
- Nice and clean.

- '90s even
- Yeah '90s, yeah.

- Back in 1968,
Cabernet Sauvignon

was an experiment
outside of Bordeaux.

Today, it's the world's
most planted grape.

- Give me, give me a moment.

- [Jancis] This is a
special moment for Mr. Dame.

We have to--

- The tannin is
incredible on this.

- [Jancis] It is, it's
always been, hasn't it?

It's always been--

- I mean, that's
been a hallmark,

particularly from
that low alcohol.

- What we've seen I
would say in California,

is that it's slightly coming
back to more like this style.

Having gone kind of massively
alcoholic, and ripe and sweet.

And there are more
and more producers

aiming for a style like this,

but not everyone
because they can sell

bottles of Cult
Cabernet hand over fist

in your part of the
world at high prices.

- I'm gonna lay this
one on the critics.

[laughing]

- Pas moi.

- Exactly, because I
think the scoring system,

and not that you weren't
doing the best you could

within the system
you were handed,

but it created a generation
of collectors and consumers

that stopped thinking
on their own.

- [Narrator] Basically
starting like the early '90s

is where you really started
to see the impact of this,

is the Parkerization of wine.

[light music]

- I was the first
person to write

a profile of Robert
Parker in Britain.

We were good friends.

He came to my house for dinner,

I went to his house for
dinner, I love his wife.

- Robert Parker is probably

the first modern day
wine critic, really.

He started a publication

back in 1978 called
The Wine Advocate,

and he developed a
very unique system

of rating wines, the
100 point system.

- [Narrator] His intention for
creating the 100 point system

as broad stroke and
subjective as it may be,

was to say to people,
here are great wineries

that are doing things right.

- You could argue that
it's not his fault

that it became so influential.

It is a shame that
I think his taste

came to dominate wine
production around the world.

- [Man] Parker likes big wines.

Powerful, steakhouse wines,

lots of structure,
lots of tannin.

- [Man] Wineries
started making wines

so they could get
those 100 point scores,

and sell a crap ton of it.

- It just seems crazy to have

this whole giant world of
wine dictated by one palate.

- You know, it's no secret
that Bob really would come out

with some very positive views
on riper styles of wine,

but that is not to say that
that was the only style of wine.

- If that man loves
rich, oaky, high alcohol,

low tannin wines, he's
entitled to that opinion.

- I don't agree with a
lot of, with his taste.

He has very different
taste in wine from mine,

but that's fine.

- You read a bunch of critics

and you find the
critic you agree with,

and then you stick
with what they say.

- In the early '70s,

California was trying the
hardest it damn well could

and making wines
from the vineyard,

and in the early 2000s, they
were resting on their laurels.

In the early '70s,

France was resting
entirely on its laurels

basically around
the entire world,

and by the 2000s came along,

they were making the best
wine they possibly could,

and I think it's now come
to an equal position.

Everyone is making the best
wine they possibly can.

- Or else.

- Or else they don't sell it.
[laughing]

- They fall out of the race.
- Yeah, yeah, exactly.

- Yeah.

- And boy do you fall out fast.

- Yeah.

- You make one mistake
today, everybody's on you.

[light music]

- [Dustin] Also from Burgundy,

but from the Cote de
Nuits is Domaine Bachelet.

Bachelet is in
Gevrey-Chambertin.

Bachelet is really one of
the greats from Burgundy.

- That was very fruity for me.
- Yep.

- This was the first one that
took me to the New World.

This is one back to
the by the glass,

if you poured this by the glass

I think you'd make a
lot of people happy.

- You'd make a lot of money.

- Yeah well, it depends
how much it costs.

It tasted well made
and I think almost like

for lack of a better word,
like shinier than the others.

Like it was more polished up.

- I would buy this.
- Yeah.

- It's my test of like
whether it's a good wine.

- But the fruit's
really perfect.

It's really sweet, it's
really forward in the glass.

- And then Domaine de la Cote.

[light music]

Then from California, wanted
to showcase Domaine de la Cote.

Domaine de la Cote is run by
Rajat Parr in Santa Barbara.

- This is a fun one 'cause
I really did not like this

when I just went
through it quickly,

and it might be the fact that
it ended up last in the lineup

and it felt a little
like simple, light.

Going back to it, I don't
hate it at all anymore.

- I mean talk about
the veg and the fruit,

I think this one has a great--
- Everything.

- A great relationship
between the two

that are really harmonious
compared to some of the others.

It's almost like Goldilocks.

Like this one was too
much, this was too little,

then this one's like
just right in that sense.

- And look, it is the one which
has so far the most terroir.

- My first note was
that it still has

some of that sort of what
I call fake elegance.

- Pretty and confected.
- Like someone was really

trying to make an elegant--
- Debutante.

- Yeah.
- Debutante. [laughs]

- I saw it and I don't know,
I might, I'll need more.

I need another
glass of this wine.

[light music]

- Alright guys, so
I'm gonna come around

and just collect your sheets.

Alright.

Thank you.

- How do we know if
Russia interfered

with this tasting today?
[laughing]

- So, let's see here.

We had ended up
having for top picks.

- There are three number two.
- Three number twos.

- And two number sixes.
- Two number sixes.

A four, and a five.

- Nine plus four.
- Plus one, 14.

- [Michael] This is where
the Russians get involved.

- [Pascaline] Attention.

- Two.
- I heard a Russian accent

come out earlier.

I was like, I don't know if
she should be tallying this up.

- Five, you agree?
- Yeah.

- Three and seven.
- Huh!

- Yeah.
- Okay.

- 14, exactly.
- Wow.

- Wow.
- Thank you.

- Oh wow.
- That's the exercise.

- 14 and 14.
- Arvid cheated.

- It's tied, it's tied.
- Two and six tied.

[light music]

- You know, the idea
for the tasting was

that basically great Pinot
Noir can come from anywhere.

I'm really excited to see
what you guys think here

after going through this.

Okay, so the way we'll do this.

We're gonna go three, two, one

and then we'll have
the others afterwards.

Alright so, in third place
taking a bronze medal.

- Our third favorite.
- It's number five.

- Number five, which is
Bachelet Corbeaux '15.

[clapping]

- That's a little too
expensive for by the glass.

[laughing]

I don't know, maybe about
the Danny Meyer group, but...

[laughing]

- Let's keep in mind

that the next two
wines had a tie score.

- Yes.

- But we're gonna pull
it out in the order

that we've decided to do
this here, to rank them.

So the next one.

- That one's gonna be tight.
- I'm stressed out.

I'm stressed out.

- Is Domaine de la Cote.
- Oh.

- Bloom's Field.
- Interessante.

- This was six, yeah.
- That was number six.

[laughing]

- Wow.
- And then...

[all cheer]

- I feel pretty
solid about this.

- That's my Burgundy.
- Alright, we'll take it.

Saved us the embarrassment.

- That's says something, huh?

[light instrumental music]

- So this is I think very,

very telling.
- That's a nice,

organized setup.
- It's really interesting.

- That says something
how good that wine is.

- I thought it was
Chambordesque, the Volnay.

- Yeah, that one
was freakin' great.

[laughing]

- Well so, you know,
these two wines were,

you know, they tied.
- Yeah.

- It's really cool.
- That's so cool.

- [Man] In the town of Volnay,

to me there's very few producers

that can compete with
Marquis d'Angerville.

[light music]

- The person who has
Domaine Marquis d'Angerville

in d'Angerville,

he's taken on an
epic, epic estate,

and they are some of the most
compelling wines in the world.

- This Domaine has been in
my family for 200 years.

I'm only the sixth
generation running it.

- Some of the vessels
they use for fermentation,

these large vats are hundreds,
and hundreds of years.

They have no idea
how far they go back.

So we're talking about
a time honored tradition

at that winery.

- For me my favorite,
favorite, favorite region,

favorite little village
in Burgundy for sure.

- I think I met Raj about
seven, eight years ago.

Every time he comes
to taste here,

I learn something from
him on my own wines.

[suspenseful music]

[metal clanking]

- Since I was 10-years-old,
I wanted to be a chef.

I came from India.

My native language was Hindi,

but in India English
is a first language,

but definitely Hindi was, you
know, what we speak at home.

I came to New York in
'94 to cooking school,

to The Culinary Institute of
America in Hyde Park, New York.

- [Narrator] He
wanted to head west,

got a job at Rubicon
under a Master Sommelier,

Larry Stone, and he
got to learn under one

of the greatest wine
tasters in the world.

- I had a six month visa,

so after six months
I had to go back,

but luckily, Larry Stone
decided to sponsor me

and that's the reason
I'm still here today.

I consider myself as
an American winemaker,

even though I'm
from Indian origins.

- [Narrator] He's
somebody who travels a lot

and tastes a lot and that's
what the most important thing is

to programing your taste
and your experience

of what you know
about the world.

- [Man] He has an encyclopedia

in his mind, in his
nose, in his mouth.

- When I tasted Burgundy
for the first time in '96,

I was like, "Wow."

So then I went there,

and I've been back every
year since '96 to today.

I haven't worked in
a restaurant in like

well over four years.

In fact, when I'm
in a restaurant,

I get a little anxiety
sometimes going like,

"Oh wow, I should do something."

But no, I don't
wanna do anything

'cause that life
is behind me now.

- [Narrator] It's like Michael
Jordan switching to baseball.

You're one of the greatest
sommeliers in the world,

and you decide to make a
switch into wine making

and actually leave the floor?

It's a bold move.

- [Raj] I think the reason
I kind of became involved

in making wine is basically
here to satisfy a dream,

the thirst of finding a place,
a new place in the new world,

where you can grow Pinot Noir.

- He's been on a mission
to kind of tell this story,

and he's been a big believer

in Santa Barbara
for a long time.

For his wines to perform at
this high level like this,

with tasters like that,

and to be compared to
some great Burgundy,

I think is phenomenal.

[light music]

- So this is the third
wine of the afternoon,

and the wines of Jancis and
Fred have been very emotional.

I think mine is probably
the most emotional

because I was 13 years
and four months old

when I first tasted this wine,

and it's a Cockburn's 1908 Port.

My grandfather turned
to me and said,

"I think you're old enough
for a glass of Port."

I took a taste.

It just knocked my
socks off, and I said,

"Gosh grandpa, what's this?"

"Cockburn '08, my boy."

And at the time, like
a lot of my colleagues,

I collected stamps,

and I was reading at school
about history and geography,

and Cockburn's '08
had what stamps had.

It had a date, it had a
country, it had a region,

and I began to, curious enough,

learn about wine through my
lessons without ever tasting it.

Fred, if you could open that?

- [Fred] I think I can do that.

- [Steven] You've got the wine

which sent me into
the wine trade.

- Steven is one of
those wise men now

in the wine industry,
in the wine world,

has become himself a winemaker
in the United Kingdom.

- [Madeline] Steven Spurrier's
making sparkling wines,

which technically speaking,
it's the hardest thing to make.

- I think Bride Valley is
a pretty brave enterprise,

because it's not by any means

a proven area for top
quality sparkling wine.

- [Madeline] The cool side.

He went to the
western, in Dorset.

In Dorset, England it gets the
whole wrath of the Atlantic,

so he gets a lot of rain,
which reduces the yields.

Not a lot of fruit comes
in, but if anyone can do it,

it's probably Spurrier.

- But it's farming.

I mean, I just sign the
checks and I sell the stuff.

I don't understand farming,
and farming annoys me

because farming doesn't work
the way I want it to work.

- But being the other side
of the table for once.

You're the seller instead
of the buyer or the critic.

You're the person producing
the stuff, which is different.

You're contending with
things like weather

that you can't control.

Doing a vineyard's the most
wildly stressful thing.

I get really upset when
you meet nice old people,

and they're retiring and they've
got some money set aside,

and they say, "Oh we've always
dreamt of having a vineyard."

And I think, don't.

Just don't do it, don't bother.

- But, I'm very happy
with the vineyard.

[cork pops]

[light music]

I think that's alright.

[Fred laughs]

- I'm hoping it's gonna
be more than alright.

I hope it's gonna be a
20, oh a lovely color.

Thank you.

Hmm.

- I mean, it's fortified.

We have to admit this
is not a table wine.

It's a fortified wine,

but it's a fortified wine
which is 110-years-old,

and I don't see how anybody

could put more than 30
or 40 years on that.

- I'm just gonna let
you two keep talking

because I'm really
enjoying this.

[laughing]

You know, you don't do this
every day of your life.

What is it they
said in Gladiator?

"Are you not entertained?"

[laughing]

- It's a story in it, yeah.
- It's perfect, it's flawless.

- It is wonderful.

It's certainly very,
very sweet obviously.

A little bit of orange peel.
- Burnt orange.

- Yeah, but it's got an
amazing freshness, as well.

One of those barky, spices.

It's not quite cinnamon,
something else.

It's got spice.
- A little nutmeg.

- Yes, maybe nutmeg.
- This is butterscotch.

- But it's more subtle than
butterscotch, don't you think?

- No, it's more vibrant
than butterscotch.

- The fruit's intact here.
- Yeah.

- You know, there's a freshness.

You're right.

You expect it to be, oh 1908,

it's gonna be really tired.
- It's not.

- Like an old tonic.

Like some 40-year-old tonic
or something, all tired out.

- No, it's revitalizing.
- Yeah.

- This is one of the
wines of the world

where you absolutely
have to wait

for decades before it
really shows itself.

- Yeah, I think Port as
a category is declining

rather than growing.
- Sadly.

- I told you, I can't think,

can't remember the last time I
actually had a glass of Port.

- When I first started
in wine in 2001,

people like loved their tawny
Port or their vintage Port,

but now I think people
are just in a rush.

- The idea of Port is not
fashionable, yet again.

- You're so faddy, you
Americans, you know?

- Well no, what
happened to Port,

we have a problem in
the United States.

Not a problem, we have a reality

and that's that 95%
of the wine consumed

in the United States
of America is consumed

within eight hours of purchase.

That is the reality of things.

So when you're talking about
aging wines and all that,

who cares, right?

And let's face it, it's
been foisted upon us

by the industry who don't
want us to age something.

They want us to buy
the next vintage.

- Yeah, buy and then
consume and then buy again.

- And then buy the next vintage.

That's the whole philosophy

of the American
production system,

and one thing I will say,

if you raise the
consciousness of a generation

to something that is just
different enough, and trust me,

these millennials are
just different enough,

they wanna be something crafty,

and they wanna bedtime
story to go with it.

- Well, there's lots of
bedtime story with this.

- This has a great
bedtime story.

- Yeah.

[light music]

We're dying to know
how these were chosen.

[Dustin laughs]

- The last one's a lot darker.

It must have a bit
of burnt ash in it.

- Thanks.
- Mm-hmm.

We put on a tasting in New York

and the purpose and the
idea behind the tasting

was to kind of start a
conversation amongst sommeliers

about Pinot Noir and where
it grows in the world,

and how things are
kind of evolving.

Basically, some of
those top three wines,

the ones that we have
in front of us here,

basically were a tie.

They earned roughly the
same amount of points.

So it was a very, very close
call between these three wines.

So we thought it'd
be really interesting

to bring the wines here,
taste them with you all,

and basically do
the exact same thing

and just to see where your
palates land with these wines.

- They do seem very
different to me, each one.

When I first tasted number one,

I thought maybe a little
bit too much green,

but it's actually growing on me.

I'm actually liking it a lot.

Number two,

very pretty now.

Maybe the most Burgundian,
even if it's not from Burgundy.

Three is very
concentrated, isn't it?

And a kind of Burgundy
lover might say,

oh, you know, why should
Pinot look like that?

It's a bit too dark
for a classic Burgundy.

But I think it
might be pretty nice

in kind of two or three years.

That's as far as I've got.

I'll listen to the kings here,
and then revise my thoughts.

[laughs]
- Fred?

- Somebody really
likes oak, right?

A lot, good barrels, though.

Very nice, wine number one

I think some expensive
wood went in there.

I think some expensive
wine making went in there.

Then you got a soda pop, right?

And just really bright, clean.

It's got that Bing cherry,

that quality I associate with
the New World, pretty much.

She thinks she's more
in the Burgundian style,

which considering some
of the recent vintages,

I couldn't arguably argue it.

I think, I mean, it's clean.

It's almost a little
vegetal on the nose.

- We should say they're
three nice wines, actually.

- Yeah, I'm nitpicking here.

This reminds me of
stuff from Otago.

Somebody's an acid head, right?

But it's good, you
know, it's well made.

This to me is a New
World style here.

- So fresher acidity than
you maybe would have thought,

given the aromatics.
- Yeah, it is.

- And the color--
- I mean, let's face it,

everybody certifies these days,

well, except for the Burgundy
'cause it's illegal, right?

- Right. [laughs]

- The acidity is really what
stands out, look at that color.

I mean, you had to
really push that.

Stylistically, Jancis is right,
they're totally different.

- [Dustin] Right.

- I'd probably
pick number three.

- Very good.

- I have a personal idea of
what Pinot Noir should be

for me, and number
three is not at all

what I want in Pinot Noir.

It's far too dark.
- Too concentrated.

- Too concentrated, it's
got far too much oak,

and I'm sure I agree
with you, Fred.

It's a good wine, but if
I go down in my cellar

looking for a Pinot Noir to
drink with a poached chicken,

that's not the one I'd take.

I think I'm going for
the reverse order.

I think I agree with Jancis.

I think number two is
probably Burgundian.

I like that wine a lot,

but I've got a lot of wines
like that in my cellar,

and so that to me is Pinot
Noir straight down the nine.

This to me, wine number one
was a slightly fuller color

and a slightly more
youthful aspect to it.

It's Pinot Noir
with a twist for me,

and of the three that's
the one I prefer.

- Interesting.
- What'd you like?

- Well, Jancis hasn't
picked her favorite yet.

- No, I haven't.

Two for today.

- Very good, very good.

Interesting so, one, two, three.

- Yep.
[laughing]

- Aren't we inviting? [laughs]

- Alright, didn't
see that coming.

So Steven, you picked
wine number one.

- I picked that one, yeah, yeah.

- Great.
- Because it's different.

- Different.
- For me.

- Jancis, you picked
wine number two.

- [Jancis] For today.

- Today, because
it's speaking to you

and if you were gonna
drink something today,

this would be the one
you'd like to drink.

And Fred, you picked wine
number three because--

- [Fred] It's big,
bad, and bold.

- Big, bad, and bold, I dig it.

Okay, well, I feel like we
should just reveal the wines.

- Go ahead.
- Yeah, go for it.

- Okay so...

Wine number one

Gevrey-Chambertin,
Domaine Bachelet 2015.

- [Steven] Wow.

- Steven, that's yours.

Corbeaux from your crew.

- [Fred] Too oaky for me.

- Jancis, wine number
two is the Californian.

- Good for them, good for
well, Raj will be thrilled.

Will he not?
- Raj Parr, yes indeed.

- Who has been trying
to make Burgundy

in California for a long time.

- [Dustin] Correct, correct.

- He's in my, he's succeeded
as far as I'm concerned.

- And then Fred,

d'Angerville Champan 2015.
- Good lord.

- I'm a d'Angerville
junkie man. [laughs]

- [Steven] Wow.

- [Jancis] So that's 15.

- It's got 15.

It's got that
horsepower, that's why.

- 15 yeah, really
concentrated fruits.

- Big and austere.

- I thought that was
Burgundy and I said,

I've got a lot of
this in my cellar.

I don't have a single bottle

of California Pinot
Noir in my cellar.

[laughing]

So you know, how much
full of yourself do you--

- I'll get Raj to
send you a case, okay?

[laughing]

- Very interesting, thank you.
- Yes.

- And nice that it shows, as
you say, how Pinot is evolving.

- Yes.

Yeah, this was, you know,

the Domaine de la Cote was
certainly the surprise.

- I think it says a lot
of very positive things

because the wines
are beautifully made

and you have to think back
30 years ago, 40 years ago,

there was a lot of very bad
wine, very poorly made wine.

- 30 years ago, longer than
that judging wine in California,

if you got the Pinot Noir panel,

you'd do anything
to get off of it.

[Jancis laughs]

I mean, you'd trade.

I'll take the fruit wines,
I'll take the White Zinfandel,

just don't me on the Pinot Noir

'cause it's gonna suck, right?

The wines blow, and they did.

They were terrible.

Then you look at
today and you see,

here's a wine made by Raj

that's standing up to
two legendary wines.

- [Dustin] Right.

- I think that's the
greatest news in the world

because you're saying,
there's great parity

occurring in the world in
the quality of wine making.

- Correct.

- Well, you know, place, and
terroir, and all those things

will always have that
hold on your heart.

Let's face it, the modern
world is changing things.

- Yes.

- To a great extent, and I
think you see it right here.

[light music]

- [Dustin] Given they
each chose different wines

and what they preferred,

I think shows that
even at a high level

with some of the best
wines in the world,

that you can still have
differences in preference.

I think that's also
really important

because I think people should
be drinking what they like,

and not just what other people
tell them they should like.

And this was really
cool to see them kind

of pick these things out

and like each of the wines
for different reasons.

- [Madeline] There is so
much wine in the world,

and so much of it is good.

So what we value is really
based on perception.

- [Narrator] When
people taste wine,

they often listen to the
voice of the winemaker

or the critic, or
a friend who says

this is the greatest
bottle ever or a price tag,

and blind tasting
takes all of that out

and lets the wine
speak for itself.

- [Dustin] This
tasting was important

because it shows that you
can have wines that do speak

of a sense of place from
lots of different places.

Not only that, but wines
from around the world now

are such, such high quality.

You don't have to
just drink, you know,

the great French
wines of the world.

You can get just
as much pleasure

out of a fun Santa
Barbara wine now

than you can about an
overgrown Cru Burgundy.

- The beauty of what we do

is that the world of wine
is constantly changing,

and you need to keep up.

- I think that the world of wine

is in a better state now than
I've ever known it, actually.

More interesting, more varied.

It's certainly in flux.

Isn't the world in flux?

- I think wine is an
ever-changing scene.

I mean, it's been
changing all of my life

and it's gonna change
probably even quicker.

God knows how many millions

of bottles there
are in the world,

so there are a lot more wines
out there that I can drink.

So I guess it's because
there's always something new.

[bright uplifting music]