Corked: Marc Fennell researches the Wine fraud scandal in the audible podcast

How do you order wine in a restaurant?

Do you think of the food you eat? The variety of the grape? The vineyard and the ground? The year? Do you look at the year of this hectic frost in this part of the world?

Or simply order the second cheap bottle on the menu and make the choice between red or white?

The average person cannot tell you whether it has certain chiant notes of hazelnut or raspberry, only that it fits well with fava beans (and liver).

The upper ranks of the wine world can be opaque, elitist and outside of the device and for some in these high places they want to want it. How else can you create a perceived and real value if you don't make it exclusive?

You have probably not yet heard of the court of Master Sommeliers America, a professional training and accreditation authority that was involved in a fraudulent scandal in 2018.

With accusations of lies, betrayal, conspiracy and institutional failure, it was mainly contained in the wine world, but do not be put off by the esoterica, because what reveals them about those involved is universal for everyone.

Marc Fennell examines the events in his new Podcast series Corked, who streams audible from today. Like most people, Fennell is not an expert in viticulture, but he thrives on the observations of the people, and the people who are caught in the 2018 scandal are nothing, if not completely consumed by wine.

“From the point of view of the outside, it is relatively low missions until they have a look at what these people have given up to get it – they are literally years of their lives,” Fennell told the evening. “It is an expensive obsession, it is like thousands of dollars that you not only spend on wine, but also for trips.

“They recognize how many people have devoted people to the lives of people, suddenly it is:” No, that is a big deal in the worlds of these people. “

Since 1969, Master Sommeliers' courtyard, who passed a number of three tests, has awarded the title Master Sommelier. The honor is as rare as Fennell emphasized in Corked, there are more astronauts than master sommeliers.

The exams consist of three parts, but the most difficult is the blind taste test, in which the candidates have to identify six wines. In 2018, on the morning of the taste test, an e -mail landed in the inbox of some of the 120 people who are supposed to take the exam.

The subject line was “Heads Up” and the body contained only two letter “PG” and “CNP” DH “Pinot Grigio/Gris” and “Chatauneuf du-Pape”. Someone gave selected candidates an advantage.

The scandal was not blown up immediately, but months later, when he did, the court decided to examine internally, a process that was never made transparent, and made the shocking decision to suspend the master -sommelier -Sommelier -Sommelier all 24 people who died this year.

There was no appeal for the decision, no recourse. The effects on the individuals were immense and even now, years later, they were still hung about their lives.

This includes Elton Nichols, one of the candidates who have received the illegal e -mail, Dan Pilkey, who is still locked up in legal disputes against the court, and Jane Lopes, a sommelier who at the time worked in one of the most famous restaurants in Australia, Attica, all of which gathered, all of the history of corked.

“Whether you are interested in wine or not, everyone is in the concept of fraud,” said Fennell. “It's really what it comes to. It is so if you are so desperate for something and you are obsessed with something and one day the answers will be received, what would you do?”

It could be easy to judge someone else's mistakes or to find a single focus of someone else that we could see as elitist. But Corked reveals the human side of a story that may otherwise appear abstract or dark. There are costs for the obsession.

Fennell is still not an expert in wines. He confessed his palette, was built for cooking and not to the elixir of the gods. But working on Corked gave him a different appreciation.

“I have an enormous respect for people who work in hospitality,” he said. “It is not that I didn't respond beforehand, but if someone comes to you in a restaurant, whether you are a cook or a cook or a sommelier and only respect what he did to get there.

“Most of these people are not masters sommeliers, they are only people who love themselves and are caring and are interested in food and textures and stories and cultures. I have grown more in person than the product.”

Corked stream on audible.