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American Morning
2002 Turning Out to be Pretty Good Year For Unlikely Wine Taster
Aired May 06, 2002 - 08:57 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, if you're the kind of person who couldn't tell a cabernet from a cabaret, no worries. There's still a lot of chance to make a lot of money just sampling wines.
As CNN's Jeanne Moos reports, 2002 is turning out to be a pretty good year for one very unlikely wine taster.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Usually those million-dollar challenges...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good!
MOOS: ... involve making a field goal, a basket, a putt or a pitch.
But sipping your way to a million bucks, now that's intoxicating.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I started getting a buzz, and I wasn't even swallowing any of it.
MOOS: Hey, a million bucks is nothing to spit at, even if it means tasting 50 wines when your preferred drink is rum.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bacardi and coke.
MOOS: Sixty-eight-year-old Korean War veteran Harvey Smith was randomly selected to enter the Walnut Crest Cabernet Sauvignon Challenge. Walnut Crest is only six bucks a bottle. The idea was to pit it against 49 pricier cabernets, and see if Harvey could pick it out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let the sipping and tasting begin.
MOOS: The experts said it couldn't be done. After all, the 50 wines all come from the same type of grape. Connoisseurs tend to sniff, swish and aerate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The oxygen will bring out more flavor moving over my tongue.
MOOS: But Harvey had his own aeration technique. He had two hours to taste all 50 wines, spitting, drinking water and nibbling on crackers in between, as well as taking notes.
Harvey had prepared for the challenge by sipping Walnut Crest a couple of times a day for several weeks, starting first thing in the morning.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Brush your teeth and rinse with it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got no teeth to brush.
MOOS: But you don't need teeth to taste. With more than an hour to spare, Harvey swallowed his last glass with a flourish.
He then made his pick, number 14. He had to write out the number like a check.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Harvey, unfortunately, the glass is glass number 38.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was the one I was trying to decide between the two.
MOOS: Reporter: no kidding. Check out his notepad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See 38 and 14. That was what I was down to, and I picked 14. You know why? I wasn't sure if I could spell 38.
MOOS: So Harvey was one wine glass away from $1 million.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's amazing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Unbelievable.
MOOS: An hour after the challenge, we found Harvey perched on a stool at Ye Olde Triple Inn, where he used to bartend. He was nursing, not a cabernet, but a rum and coke.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I couldn't believe I was only one off.
MOOS: Harvey was happy to settle for a $10,000 consolation prize.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want me to cash that for you? You got to sign the back.
MOOS: He plans to use the money to fix his teeth. They don't call it Walnut Crest for nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got to get back to my Bacardi.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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