Season 6, Round 4: “So, You Think you Know Wine?”

A Sterling Redemption

Welcome to Round 6.4 of “So, You Think You Know Wine?” For those of you who are new to the series, this is a blind tasting competition where top wine experts face the daunting task of identifying a wine with no clues as to what is in their glass. For Season 6 we’ve made some changes that are sure to please our viewers. Our host, the esteemed James Chatto, puts the spotlight back on the wines and the deductive process. You’ll find Season 6 to be not just entertaining but educational as well.

Watch as nine wine experts swirl, sniff, gurgle and spit their way to discovering the grape variety, region, vintage, and price of the wine. Points are awarded and a champion eventually emerges.

So, pour yourself a glass of wine, sit back and enjoy Round 6.4 as James leads John Szabo, Steve Thurlow and Bruce Wallner in a blind tasting to identify an affordable Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.

Click the image above or here to watch Round 4.

In round 6.3, Bruce managed to “pluck defeat from the jaws of victory” at the last minute by changing his correct guess of Italian Pinot Grigio to an Ontario Riesling. Michael Godel kept to his first instinct and won the round. Have a look at the score card below to see how the contestants are doing so far.

The Scoring

The scoring on each wine remains similar to past seasons with 10 points total for Variety, Country, Region, Appellation, Vintage, and Price.

Variety up to 3 points
Country, Region, Appellation up to 4 points
Vintage up to 2 points
Price (within 10% on either side), 1 point

James Chatto

James Chatto has written about food, wine and spirits for 30 years. The author of seven books, he is wine columnist and Senior Editor of the LCBO’s Food & Drink magazine.

John Szabo, MS

John is Canada’s first Master Sommelier. He’s a partner and principal critic for WineAlign and authors the bi-monthly Vintages Preview. John is wine editor for Toronto’s CityBites Magazine and is the author of Pairing Food and Wine For Dummies and the newly published Volcanic Wines: Salt, Grit and Power. John also designs wine programs, teaches, speaks, judges and travels around the world, and to round out his experience and get closer to the land, he also owns a small vineyard in Eger, Hungary, the J&J Eger Wine Co.

Steve Thurlow

At WineAlign, Steve Thurlow is a principal critic and partner mainly interested in the wines for sale at LCBO in Ontario. He was a contributor to Wine Access and with Anthony Gismondi he co-founded the International Value Wine Awards, the precursor of WWAC. With his wine education and communication business, Wine for Life, he leads groups of wine lovers on several travel trips each year to explore the wine, food, culture and history of places such as Sicily, Chile, Argentina, Greece, New Zealand, South Africa and the wine regions that lie along the Danube.

Bruce Wallner, MS

Bruce Wallner was certified as Master Sommelier in London in November 2009. He has served as Chef Sommelier at luxury properties around the world and as the official Sommelier trainer for Team Canada. Bruce’s time is now carefully shared between his young family and The SOMMELIER FACTORY, where keen Sommeliers and curious wine drinkers meet to learn and taste.

We hope that you enjoy Round 4. As usual, please send your comments to [email protected] and feel free to share this video with your friends and family.

Previously on Season 6 of “So, You Think You Know Wine?”:

Round 1: Concha Y Toro Terrunyo Lot No. 1 Carmenère 2013
Round 2: Henry Of Pelham Cuvée Catharine Carte Blanche Blanc De Blanc 2011
Round 3: Montalto Pinot Grigio 2015

Special thanks to our sponsors Balderson Cheese, Zalto glassware and the Wine Academy.