Editor’s Note: In Editor-at-Large Dan Berger’s recent essay on “Wimpy Wines”, he observes that some “Cabernet Sauvignons are harvested so late that the resulting wines taste as much like over-ripe prune juice as they do Syrah.” Dan continues, challenging us to taste – side-by-side – a bottle of Cabernet and a bottle of Syrah, each with 15% alcohol to see if we can distinguish the varietal character differences between the two. Well, it sounded like an interesting enough challenge so our esteemed panel of experts gathered in our San Francisco office to put ourselves to the ‘Varietal Distinctiveness’ test.