House Pour vs Grand Cru
The same grape at three price tiers, tasted blind. Find out if your palate is actually expensive, or if you’ve been telling yourself a story.
What it's for
Run the Palate thesis in its purest form — one grape, three price tiers, no labels, let the table prove or disprove its own taste.
The guest's job
Rank the three wines blind and name the one you’d actually buy again; commit before conferring.
The vote
Rank blind first, then guess the splurge — two votes, one reveal, maximum gap between expectation and result.
The reveal
Prices second, labels last — hold both until the tally is done so the lesson lands undiluted.
Food & drink spine
Hard cheese, plain bread, unsalted nuts, a bowl of olives — restrained, palate-clean, nothing distracting.
Conversation fuel
"What are you actually paying for at the top tier — the wine, the scarcity, or the story?"
How it flops — steer around it
Choosing a boring grape. Pick a varietal the table has actual opinions about — Cabernet, Chardonnay, or Pinot Noir.
A focused, single-varietal flight that pits a cheap bottle, a mid bottle, and a splurge bottle against each other blind. One grape, three tiers, no labels. Guests rank, then prices are revealed. The lesson is rarely the one anyone expects.
Why it works
Tightly scoped, cheap to run, and the price reveal lands every single time. The purest expression of the Palate thesis.
Food
Restrained, palate-clean food: a wedge of hard cheese, plain bread, unsalted nuts, a bowl of olives.
Drink
Three bottles of one grape across price tiers — e.g. a $12, a $35, and a $90 Cabernet, Chardonnay, or Pinot Noir. Bag and number them.
Voting
Rank the three blind; guess which is the splurge; name the one you would actually buy again.
Conversation prompts
What are you actually paying for at the top tier — the wine, the scarcity, or the story?