At a GuildSomm workshop at New York City’s Corkbuzz in 2013, Master Sommelier Laura Maniec led a blind tasting with seasoned and fledgling sommeliers. At one point, after pointing out our confusion of American and French oak once again, Maniec commented, “I find that sommeliers are so used to smelling ripe fruit and oak together that it is hard for them to distinguish a wine that has ripe fruit and no oak from one…