The First Vintage

I'm finally caving to the peer pressure. Jeff Potter and Garrett Martz - bloggers extraordinaire both, and two of my Mad Ants coworkers - have been on me for months to start a blog of my own, and here I now find myself in front of this screen, typing away. No turning back now!

With Jeff and Garrett's blogs focusing on inside information about the Mad Ants, I wanted to take a different tack, one that I can lend a bit of expertise to. While I know almost nothing about basketball (other than selling it), I do have an extensive background in wine. But how on Earth am I going to marry wine and basketball? Carefully, and only in print; I can assure you that none of our players are going to be pulling a Ron Artest any time soon.

My plan is this: within 24 hours of any Mad Ants game I will select a bottle of wine that seems to fit something significant from that game and I will publish tasting notes for that wine. I will try to focus on reasonably priced wines because a) I want them to be accessible to all of you (especially my public interest lawyer friends) and b) I'm buying these bottles myself and minor league sports is no lucrative venture!

Our last game was a miserable loss to Erie, in which we quickly turned a 94-90 lead into a 104-94 deficit through a string of terrible shots, Swiss cheese defense and sloppy play. The lone bright spot, however, was Oliver Lafayette who had 25 points in the first half and finished with 32. In honor of Oliver's performance - and despite his awful three pointer during a crucial point down the stretch and my belligerence in cursing out my computer as I watched it happen - I decided to open a bottle of Oliver Winery Zinfandel.

The wine itself is rather unremarkable but the interesting element is that while the winery itself is located in Bloomington, IN, the grapes from most of the winery's traditional varietals are imported from California and Washington. They do this because wines made from grapes grown in Indiana are, well, awful. There are many factors for that, including climate, soil quality and vineyard slope, among other things, but going into detail will only bore you (generously assuming that you are not already bored and are not only reading this far because you are family or friend). The bottom line is that you never want to drink a bottle of wine from Indiana unless you are doing so as a dare.

This particular Zinfandel is made from grapes grown in Lodi, California, home to many of California's best Zins. I am a huge fan of Zinfandel, with its rich body and massive bramble and plum flavors. While I appreciate almost any wine in the right situation - i.e., with the right meal - Zinfandel may be my favorite to drink on its own. It is easy to drink - though it is one of the highest alcohol content wines out there, which can result in the alcohol taste overpowering the fruitiness - and it is soft enough that you don't have to deal with sour-lemon-face induced by the tannins in so many Cabernet Sauvignons and Shiraz.

The Oliver Zin was drinkable, though a bit overpriced at $16-$18. Similarly overvalued was Oliver Lafayette's performance, as his 32 points and 4 assists did nothing to make his teammates better. Apparently he had a lapse where he forgot that the PG next to his name on the roster means he is supposed to pass the ball on occasion. Regardless, the Mad Ants fell to 8-12 and I got to enjoy an average bottle of wine. Things could be worse.