One of my sweet gigs is picking wines for the Red Brick Café here in Guelph. Friday night was selection night – kinda like America’s Got Talent, except the wine is auditioning and I’m not on TV. So in another very real way it’s not like America’s Got Talent at all. My wife and I met with 5 Red Brick employees, 5 red wines, and selection night began.
Selecting wines is like being the Westminster Kennel Show judge. All the dogs you inspect are fine animals but do they properly represent their breed? Beagles are to be compared with the ideal Beagle, Huskies with the ideal Huskie, and so on. One of the good things about selecting wines is that you don’t have to inspect a dog’s bum.
Back to my point – If you pick a Cabernet Sauvignon it needs to taste like a Cabernet. The one we tried was tasty but it would have been misleading to put on a wine menu. It was too grassy and green for a Cab Sav. We also tried a Shiraz that was good but not big enough for what I want an Aussie Shiraz to taste like.
In the end we chose 2 great red wines to go with the harvest white wine we selected back in the Spring. They unveil later this week at the Red Brick Café.