Introducing Season 6 of “So, You Think you Know Wine?”

6.1 – Crafty Carmenère

Welcome to an exciting new season of “So, You Think You Know Wine?“. For Season 6 we’ve made some changes that are sure to please our viewers. Our new 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, with no clues as to what the wine is in their glass, 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.

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

So, pour yourself a glass of wine, sit back and enjoy Round 1 as James leads Sara d’Amato, David Lawrason and John Szabo in a blind tasting to identify the characteristics of a high-quality Chilean Carmenère.

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.

Sara d’Amato

Sara is a Toronto-based wine consultant, sommelier, wine critic and principal partner with WineAlign. She has worked in cellars both in Niagara and in France, as Sommelier at the Four Seasons Hotel and at the Platinum Club of the Air Canada Centre. She is also a contributor to Chatelaine magazine. Sara is the first and only woman to have won the Grand Award at the prestigious Wine Tasting Challenge.

David Lawrason

David is a principal critic and VP of Wine for WineAlign. He is also co-head judge for the National Wine Awards of Canada and the World Wine Awards of Canada. He is wine columnist for Toronto Life and Ottawa magazine, a WSET instructor with Fine Vintage Ltd, and National Wine Advisor to Gold Medal Plates, a chef competition held in ten cities that raises funds for Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

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.

We hope that you enjoy Round 1. 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 sponsors Balderson Cheese, Zalto glassware and the Wine Academy.