5 Wine Myths Busted

(LAMag) - The wine world can be an intimidating place. So many rules! You hear them from your oenophile friends, the guy at the wine aisle in Trader Joe’s, and know-it-alls standing around a wine table at a party. And, without realizing why, you grow to accept that only cheap wines use screw caps or that if you want the best you have to spend lots. Fortunately at the 6th Annual Pebble Beach Food & Wine event last weekend, a panel of master sommeliers served to bust all such wine myths.

Moderator and Food & Wine Executive Wine Editor Ray Isle and master somms Larry O’Brien, Tim Gaiser and Shayn Bjornholm conducted a blind tasting of Chardonnays, Pinot Noirs, and Cabernet Sauvignons, sharing their guesses as to the origin, year, and price of each one. The audience had to vote on who they thought was correct, and in the end the bottles were revealed. Not only did this demonstrate that even the best of the best can mistake a $22 Pinot Noir* for the most expensive of the flight but that people won’t dump out a tasting of a $100 wine. Along the way, the somms answered questions from the audience and cleared up popular misconceptions about wine.