We All Watched the Game. At Least the Wine was Good

Football is a sport that is intimately associated with beer. The bevy of beer commercials - none of which mention the taste or quality of the product, by the way - during the Super Bowl only reinforces that relationship. There have been many a tailgate, game watch and trips to the concession stand in the stadium where I have been given funny looks, mocked or ridiculed for coming back with wine instead of beer. And those are my friends and family doing the mocking. Still, I prefer wine. Caitlin does, too. And I refuse to drink crappy, watery beer just because I am watching sports.

I get that beer and football go together. Even though I was watching a game between one team I don't particularly like and one team that I could never, ever cheer for as a loyal Bears fan, I watched the game. And I watched the halftime show – poor sound and all. And I watched the commercials. I watched the pregame pomp and pageantry. And I watched Christina Aguilera botch the National Anthem.

I watched it all with a glass of wine in my hand because, to be honest, watching the Packers dominate for most of the game then hoist the Lombardi trophy over their collective heads was painful enough without drinking bad beer. We were drinking wine that I enjoyed but Caitlin wasn’t a fan of: Anakena Single Barrel Rapel Valley Pinot Noir. There was a bit too much spice and earthiness to the wine for Caitlin, which were the characteristics I liked in this wine. For a light-to-medium bodied wine, I appreciated the tobacco, spice and earth flavors that dominated the palate. With a darker color, more spice, and far less berry flavors than many California Pinots I’ve tried, I found the Anakena Single Barrel to be well-balanced, complex and enjoyable, especially for the price.

When Green Bay was doing well, I could think about the tastes and flavors in the wine I was drinking instead of the game I was watching. To be fair, the game was pretty good, especially compared to some other Super Bowls that have been totally lopsided and uninteresting. The exception being, of course, the 46-10 Super Bowl XX beat-down between the Bears and the Patriots, which was awesome.

There were points during this game, and all the coverage leading up to and after the game, that I just didn’t want to watch. During those times, I was glad I was able to have a decent glass of wine that would take my mind off the madness of a Packers championship instead of a weak, watery beer. I made the right choice and am sure that as wine becomes more approachable, more people will, too.