Season 5, Table 3 of “So, You Think you Know Wine?”

Desperately Seeking Tannins (a.k.a. RMS Titanninic)

Back by popular demand, Season 5 returns to the original format of the first 3 seasons where individuals battle it out for the illustrious title of SYTYKW Champion.

As always, the video series brings together Canada’s top wine experts, but this time a few well-known food personalities have taken on the daunting task of competing against wine critics, sommeliers, and wine educators.

Watch as the emotions around the table move from uncertainty to confidence to utter surprise as Jennifer Huether MS, Véronique Rivest, and Brad Long tackle the mystery wine in Table 3.

You may notice that the first few rounds are challenging for everyone. The tables get better and better as more of the ‘classic’ varietal character of future wines shines through. We thought it would still be fun to share these first few rounds with you.

Without any clues, host Seán Cullen takes each table through the swirling, sniffing, and gurgling ritual of wine tasting—asking them to correctly identify the grape, country, region, vintage, and price of the wine. Cullen then issues each player a score but not without, first, testing a few of his own theories against the experts. A champion eventually emerges.

Click here to watch Table 3 or read on to learn more about the contestants and the scoring method.

Table 3

Jennifer Huether MS

Jennifer is the first and only female Master Sommelier in Canada. She has a wealth of experience in hospitality and restaurant managment which includes creating the award-winning wine program as head sommelier for Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. She then went on to become brand ambassador and education director for Cliff Lede Vineyards and now is brand ambassador for Jackson Family Wines.

Véronique Rivest

Véronique won second place at the prestigious Sommelier du Monde Competition in 2013, in fact, she is the first woman ever to have made it to the podium. She is a wine columnist for Ottawa’s Le Droit newspaper and Radio-Canada and she has just opened her own wine bar in Gatineau, Quebec called Soif.

Brad Long

Brad is a well-known Toronto chef who has appeared on the Food Network’s show Restaurant Makeover. For 10 years he was head chef at the Air Canada Centre and he is now owner of Cafe Belong and Belong Catering.

The Scoring

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

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

Let the games begin! Pour yourself a glass of wine and watch table 3.

For those of you new to our video series, “So, You Think You Know Wine?”, we have saved all previous episodes under the Videos tab.

Previously on Season 5 of “So, You Think You Know Wine?”:

Table 1 – Wolf Blass Gold Label Chardonnay 2013
Table 2 – Creekside Sauvignon Blanc 2013

We hope that you find this new series entertaining and that you have as much fun watching as we did filming. As usual, please send your comments to [email protected] and feel free to share this video with your friends and family.

Special thanks to our glassware sponsor, Schott Zwiesel, for their beautiful glasses and carafes used during filming.