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WineInk: A bubbly competition

SOMM TV comes to town

Kelly J. Hayes
WineInk
"The Tournament of Bubbles" was shot in June at The Little Nell.
Courtesy photo

Aspen is no stranger to the human drama of athletic competition. “The thrill of victory … and the agony of defeat,” as the saying goes.

Each fall, gladiators test themselves at Ruggerfest; in January, snowboarders fly high over the halfpipe at X Games; and then there is the downhill racers who speed down Ajax in the World Cup. It’s a competitive town.

But this past June, a friendly competition turned a bit more cerebral than athletic as a cadre of nationally-known wine professionals relied on their palates in a blind tasting wine program called the “Tournament of Bubbles.”



The event was created by SOMM TV, the wine streaming site, and filmed at the 40th annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen. The show, a fascinating look at how wine professionals go about the process of examining and identifying wines, dropped this week on SOMM TV and is a great watch. The studio set for the program is The Little Nell, which is to wine events what Buttermilk is to big-air competitions. I recommend you pop open a bottle of sparkling wine and go to sommtv.com for a viewing.

Jesse Katz, the young prince of Aperture Cellars, with show host Claire Coppi.
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Presented by Claire Coppi, SOMM TV’s host and wine communications manager, in an engaging fashion, the tournament paired winemaker Jesse Katz of Aperture Cellars, Little Nell sommelier Rachael Liggett-Draper, legendary New Orleans restaurateur Ti Marten, and Food & Wine Executive Wine Editor Ray Isle. Quite a lineup. All four of these wine pros have been subjects of previous articles in WineInk. The quartet undertook the challenge of blind tasting three sparkling wines in a competition to see who would win a spectacularly grand prize.




And that prize was provided by Jacob Gragg — the U.S. brand ambassador for Ca’del Bosco, the esteemed, sparkling Franciacorte wine — who brought a large format Ca’del Bosco Cuvee Prestige Franciacorte, 44th edition for the champion.

“This is a note-card wine,” said Little Nell’s Liggett-Draper about the coveted bottle. “It’s from a benchmark producer who you learn about as you study the style of wine. Let alone that it’s a ginormous bottle.”

Ginormous, indeed, as the Methuselah (as the bottle is called), holds 6 liters, or 8 bottles, or 48 glasses of the golden elixir from the Lombardi region of Italy.

In full Food & Wine mode, Editor Ray Isle settles in to identify the bubbles in the glass.
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Normally when tasting, wine professionals use a deductive method to identify wines. This calls for them to weigh in and eliminate, or include, wines based on color, aromas, flavors, and other clues they see, smell, and taste in their glasses. But differences in sparkling wines are often much more subtle. Colors are similar, as often are the grapes, and they are frequently made in the same manner, which presents real challenges for making accurate identification of individual sparkling wines.

“Blind-tasting sparkling wines is harder than blind-tasting still wines. Aromatically, it is a little trickier because you have the carbon dioxide of the bubbles coming up out of the glass,” Editor Isle said about the task at hand. “And a lot of the character comes from the process of making them as opposed to the terroir in a sense.”

He paused, then added, “So yeah, it’s kind of evil.”

The show producers and host selected three sparkling wines: one from Oregon, a Prosecco from the Valdobbiadene region of Veneto in Italy, and an aforementioned Franciacorte. I will not spoil the narrative by naming the wines here; you have to go to SOMM TV to get the full experience, but suffice to say, it is a fun watch, and each of the four contestants/professionals have their individual star turns.

Up first is the young winemaker, Jesse Katz, who smells the wines and then tastes each with vigor before describing the flavors with off-the-cuff notes that sound as fully-formed as those found in Wine Spectator or Decanter. He could do this for a living. When it was her turn to taste, Liggett-Draper looked at the three glasses in front of her and exclaimed to the host Coppi, “I’m so glad you didn’t give me a spit cup; this is the breakfast of champions.” Liggett-Draper focused on the fruits in the wines as she tasted them.

For her part, Ti Marten — who runs “one of the best neighborhood restaurants in the country,” Commanders Palace in New Orleans (That’s an understatement) — was enthralled by the differences in the size of the bubbles in the three wines, an interesting contrast to the other three tasters. And an unshaven Ray Isle (The episode was shot early in the morning at the Classic, where he is notoriously sleep-deprived) was quick and to the point, noting the difference in the production methods used in making the three wines.

All four brought individual perspectives on how they approached the blind-tasting process and were uncanny in their ability to make the selections. Two of the contestants made it to a unique final format and the championship round. Of course, I can’t give away the ending, but suffice to say, the friendly tasting ended on a high, though slightly profane, note.

Rachael Liggett-Draper, sommelier at The Little Nell, is fan of all things that sparkle — especially Champagne.
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The “Tournament of Bubbles” is just another example of the exceptional wine–based programming that has been produced over the last decade by SOMM TV, which is available to wine lovers online for $5.99 per month or $49 a year. About the price of one good bottle of wine.

Founded in 2013 by Jason and Christina Wise and partner Jackson Myers, following the success of their initial wine film, SOMM (which featured former Aspen sommeliers Dustin Wilson and Sabato Sagaria), SOMM TV has a library consisting of more than 500 hours of original programming. With shows like the profile-driven “Behind the Glass” and films like the James Beard Award-winning “The Whole Animal,” SOMM TV has created a niche platform that is unlike any other on television or any streaming site today.

“I deeply love history and travel,” said Wise about his path to where SOMM TV is today. “I think the entire human story can be told through the arc of wine. We have access to the best stories in the wine world and approach each show with a cinematic point of view.”

The result is a programming powerhouse that continues to grow and document the world of wine.

In addition to fun programs like “Tournament of Bubbles,” the trio is also producing important films like “Cup of Salvation,” which will debut this year and was shot in the virtual cradles of wine, including Armenia and Iran. Heady stuff. Wise, who directed “Tournament of Bubbles” and has an affinity for Aspen (“It’s one of the best wine towns anywhere,” he notes), hopes to come back for future shows.

Maybe the tourney will take a place next to Ruggerfest, X Games, and the World Cup on the annual calendar here in Aspen.

UNDER THE INFLUENCE…

2021 Rio Madre Rioja Graciano

Last week, I wrote about the pleasures one can bring by spending a little time selecting a bottle of wine as a gift. And then, as if on cue, friends picked a special bottle to bring for a pasta repast. I was told to expect a bottle from Rioja, and I just assumed it would be a Tempranillo. Instead, they brought a wine made from a dark, semi-obscure grape called Graciano. The wine was rich with dried fruits like blueberries and cherries and drank well above its weight and price, as is almost always the case with wines from the Jorge Ordoñez Selections. Oh, and the pet name I had for my mother was “Madre.” It just worked.

Rio Madre Rioja.
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