A First For This Wine Professional

As you can imagine we get some odd questions and requests here at The Wine Country, from the random, “I’m not a wine drinker but they are. I don’t know what she likes but she is Asian, vegetarian and a heart specialist”…..because you know we have a section for that, to the “I’m looking for a wine that will pair with a chili powder encrusted lollipop” or whatever other strange combination of flavors. We hear all kinds of wacky things and we try our best to help, we want people drinking wine dude, so aside from saying, “Well, this won’t be a perfect match but it’s the best we can do” we don’t discourage folks from playing around with pairings and we always try and help the “not wine drinkers” find awesome bottles to share with their wine drinking buddies. The other day I heard one that in all my years here at The Wine Country I had never heard before……




“What wine would you recommend to go with pot?” was the question….blink…blink. I tried being funny, “A pot of what” I replied but the blank stare that met my smiling face let me know with certainty that my attempt at humor was a failed one to say the least. Trying to regain my professionalism I asked with a straight face, “Now by pot I am assuming…..(now to a whisper) you mean marijuana” I felt like one of those old ladies that talk really loud but whisper things like divorce and Cancer. “Yes that’s what I mean” was the reply, she then went on “I was thinking maybe Riesling would be good because of all the fruit and the clean acidity”…she had spent some time thinking about this…impressive. “Well, if I had to guess I would think something more green in flavor” I suggested and showed her a few things from the Loire Valley, my favorite little Touraine from Francois Chidaine, ($11.99) the Vieux Prunier Sancerre, ($21.99) and a Spanish Rueda or two. She happily purchased her 3 bottles, (after I checked her ID, only a young person would come right out and ask that….not that there are not plenty of older people puffing away on their magic dragon, they are just more conservative about sharing that little nugget of information) and went on her merry way…..sure hope I was right!