Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Previously, we’ve folded these in to our betting guides, whether that’s been for the NFL slate or a bizarrely successful run through the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.
Professional sports used to be beer’s domain. Miller Lite cemented this by making legends like John Madden and Red Auerbach its spokesmen back in the 1980s.
But lately, wine has eaten into that market share. Lebron James loves it so much he’d previously fit visits to Napa Valley into the Cavaliers’ West Coast road trips. Former NFL quarterback Drew Bledsoe’s second act is as a celebrated vintner in his home state of Washington. More and more, American pro sports’ relationships with fermented grapes has grown beyond bottles of Korbel champagne soaking championship locker rooms.
In that spirit, I’m branching this feature out into unchartered territory (for me). Harvey & Harriet is Booker Vineyard’s “cult wine,” a $30 Bordeaux blend from a company that typically specializes in bottles that start in the triple digits. It’s an ode to vintner/farmer Eric Jensen’s parents, and since Eric’s Popping Corks podcast has had a bunch of sports figures on it, like Joc Pederson, Rick Mirer and Will Blackmon, well, it seemed like a natural fit for this column.
But while I am a Rhode Island high school football legend much like Blackmon (having successfully led Pilgrim’s freshman team to a 4-3 record in 1998), I am not a wine expert. My experiences with the grown-up grape juice generally falls into three categories:
- Sips of left-behind chilled white wines, snuck away during slow moments during my time as a gondolier on the Providence River (long story).
- Gulps of Sunset Blush, pulled directly from a freshly-slapped bag of Franzia.
- MD 20/20, transferred from the bottle and into a can to make for easier gesturing at Purdue University tailgates.
So I’m going into Harvey & Harriet with an open mind and a complete lack of understanding about what I should be looking for. OK. Well, let’s see how this goes.