Episode 135: Simon Jacob "Puts the Wine on Trial" to see what happens when we stop tasting labels and start tasting wine (Part 2)

Welcome to The Kosher Terroir - The Wine on Trial Part 2 of 3

I did something to a bottle of red wine that would horrify a marketing department: I took away its name. No grape. No country. No vintage. Just a covered bottle and an honest glass, because I want to see what happens when we stop tasting labels and start tasting wine.

We move through five structured wine tasting frameworks, each one sharper than the last. First comes the three-step table method you can do quietly at a Shabbat meal: look, smell, taste. Then we get serious about the mechanics of swirl, sniff, sip, and savor, including what swirling changes in the glass actually, why “legs” are mostly alcohol and physics, and why a quick slurp can turn vague fruit into clear red cherry. From there, we open a notebook and use the WSET Systematic Approach to Tasting to translate impressions into consistent tasting notes that your future self can trust. Then we go full detective, treating acidity, color, tannin, and oak like courtroom testimony that can point to climate, age, and grape.

Finally, we put sentiment on the bench with the UC Davis 20 point scale, hunting for faults and scoring what the wine is worth in cold points. Only after that do we pay the entrance fee to the last box and commit to an identity, followed by a reveal that lands with real weight. And a deeper idea I keep coming back to: kavod, giving full attention before you let status speak.

Taste along, then share this with a friend who loves wine talk, and please subscribe and leave a review so more listeners can find the show. What’s one bottle you want to taste blind next?

Subscribe, share this with a friend who loves history or wine, and leave a review with your take: when the labels disappear, who gets written out of the story?