[Kelly] I've got Blake Shelton with me
and in New York via Skype is Cynthia Nixon!
(cheering and applause)
Blake, is it fair to say that you shared a drink or maybe 13
with like everyone in country music?
[Blake] Yes.
- Okay.
- Yes.
- So, just wanted to make sure.
Well there's one drink Blake may have skipped.
I was talking with Little Big Town the
other day and they had this to say:
Jimmy, wine beer whiskey,
Thomas Rhett,
University of Alabama football coach, Nick Saban.
And what the hell, we'll just keep Shelton
'cause people like him here.
[Thomas] and I would say wine with Blake
because that would be the least obvious choice
and I think it would be hilarious
trying to have a refined wine conversation.
(laughter)
- That's awesome. - The paper cuts would be fun.
- I love that, I realized they were right.
So I need to drink wine with Blake, which brings us here.
Joining us now is the founder of SommSelect,
and one of 300 masters sommeliers in the world.
Please welcome in Ian Cauble.
What's up Ian?
[Ian] What's up everybody, thanks for having me.
- Nice to see you again.
So how much experience, Ian, do you have teaching
beer, whiskey, and, vodka drinking country boys about wine?
- Very little, actually,
but I think Blake's a pro and he's a great test subject.
So, I think he'll be successful.
- Blake and I have wine here,
and Cynthia has the same wines in New York.
Are you all set, Cynthia?
[Cynthia] I am, I definitely am.
- All right. All right.
Well what will we be tasting, Ian?
- So today we're focused on Burgundy, my favorite region
of the world, and this is pretty much mecca
for great Pinot Noir du Chardonnay.
So let's start with this first wine.
So we have a John Mark PO premiere Cru coming
from Chassagne Montrachet, very famous village.
This is kind of like a fairy tale for people who love wine.
So let's go ahead and
smell the first wine first and foremost
let's go ahead and grab the--nice glasses by the way, Kelly.
- Hey, I don't know if you know
but we won an Emmy, so we're upping our game.
- Fancy.
So first and foremost, let's go ahead and grab the wine
by the stem.
You don't want to get the wine warm with your hand.
If you're at a party and you're holding the glass
by the stem or by the bulb you're basically
gonna warm your glass pretty quickly.
Nice work, Cynthia.
- Yeah, Blake is looking good.
- So lets go ahead and put the glass on the table
- You're not getting any, if you hold your glass
but like this at a party cause people will know-
- You're not getting any! (laughing)
- Yeah, you know what I mean? It's like, loser!
(all laughing)
You're gonna want to put the base of the stem
right here, at the base of your nose here. A little bit.
What are you smelling, Blake?
- Why, what do you mean?
(audience and Kelly laughing)
- Are you smelling any white or peaches?
- Oh yeah it is kinda fruit, right? Fruit?
- Can I taste it?
- Yeah, lets taste it.
- Okay!
- We'll taste about a half ounce
and then I want you to swirl it around your palette
for about five or six seconds and expose all your taste buds
to it, swallow it without your nose.
You should be getting a lot of information going
to your brain about all the different fruits.
- Oh! It's like collecting in my cheeks
and the insides of my cheeks.
It's nice, like a little party.
- Exactly and you're getting a lot of acidity
and freshness and this minerality.
Is anybody tasting a lot of this like mineral component?
Almost like like oyster shell maybe?
- That's what I was gonna say yeah, mineral component.
That's what I was going to.
I was going to leave with that.
It's weird that you did first, but I'll just
let you talk about it.
- So this region used to exist
under a shallow ocean for about 200 million years.
So all of the seashells decompose creating limestone.
So what you're tasting
on the pallet is actually 185 million years in the making.
If that makes it taste any better.
- Bad snails.
- (laughing)
- What in the hell?
- Oh my gosh, that's actually awesome that information!
- We can go back to bourbon if you want Blake, It's fine.
- Oh, I like bourbon too.
I like--I like this.
- I like this too.
- This is actually the first thing I've done
on this show, that's worth a crap.
Drinking. Drinking, finally.
(laughing)
- This next one is a pinot
one and Ian, you know that's my favorite.
- I do know that.
So this is coming from the next village, just south.
This is called Santana coming from a 120 year old vine.
So you can imagine that these great
vines have roots that are going down almost as far
as a 10 story building.
What does everyone smell?
- Oh!
- This is going to sound weird, but like leather.
I don't know why I don't--
- You know, I totally agree with you.
It smells like leather.
- Like, like aged leather, like a really nice leather
jacket that I want to drink.
- He's known for having more earthy tones
and so you're getting it, for me,
you're getting this strawberry blossom
almost strawberry preserves, but there's a lot
of secondary characters of like leather mushroom
a little bit of like crushed rocks accents
of a little bit of baking spices of vanilla from--
- Yea, because I was going to say that too
but I'll let you say it first though.
That was cool.
- That's my favorite.
- And this is a really young wine
and this wine is truly gonna reach its peak
in about 10 to 15 years.
- I just want to give a shout
out cause I know that Christine
and our audience, I noticed she had some wine.
She sippin wine with us today y'all.
Get it Christina! Yes!
Okay. Well, let's try vodka cause I wanted to try it.
- Yes.
- This is Blake's vodka.
Everybody's got some, we've got them a little tiny
little cute, adorable little mini solo cups.
So let's smell it first.
Here we go.
What notes do you get, Ian, from Blake's vodka?
- Well, I thought y'all might of poured water in there.
- No!
- That's real.
- I am authentic, bro.
- We're drinking the real deal.
- Okay, wait. Let's taste--
- You know what? I'll say this.
The best vodkas in the world don't have much aroma.
The greatest vodkas are very clean
and I was actually sipping on this before the show
and it's really good. It's very elegant.
- (laughing) My man!
You know exactly what you're talking about.
- It's no joke, this is really good. It's really smooth.
And you know, good job.
- Okay, cheers.
- I'm going to send you a case of it Cynthia.
- Please do.
- I haven't had a shot in a while.
- Did she really do it?
- Yes!
- Oh my god.
You have to fill more of these today?
- It's just one shot, mama's fine.
I smell hints of regret twenties
and someone holding my hair.
- (laughing)
- That's what I'm tasting
as well, poor decisions; that's what I smell.
That's what I taste.
Congrats Blake, Master Somm has approved your vodka.
That's amazing.
- Thank you!
(kelly and audience cheering)