Looking for wild boar

“What wines would you recommend?”

“What’s your budget?”

“Cheap,” I said. But then I added “I’m willing to be convinced.”

This was code for “I want to try free samples of the expensive wines you carry.”

Unfortunately for my credit card, I fell for my own trick and ended up buying wines that costed two times what I originally anticipated.

I long wondered whether I would be able to taste the subtleties of an expensive wine or if they would be lost on me. I have no idea if I noticed everything there was in that wine, but it definitely tasted better than my usual 10 dollar bottle.

(The wine that tricked me…Horus 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon from the Undurraga winery in Chile)

This is sad since I’m supposed to have a wine certificate from the VQA in Ontario. I even passed it with “distinction.” I did the course while I was getting a bartending degree, and they offered to throw a wine course for cheap. There were no teachers. There was no wine. I memorized a booklet, regurgitated it, and got a shiny golden degree in the mail a few weeks later. Great course–I never drank a single drop.

When the salesperson realized I was hooked and would obey any orders, he suggested that I buy a bottle of a grape that I hadn’t tried before. My zombie-shopper self agreed.

“What’s a shiraz like?”

“It’s a stronger grape, with a slight sour taste”

“Mmm”

“It’s a great conversational wine. It also pairs beautifully with wild sweet meats. If you had some wild boar, this would be the bottle to open.”

“Wild boar?”

“Yes, wild boar. Pull it out of the freezer and open this bottle.”

Right. Because average shoppers have wild boar in their freezers. At that moment I remembered why I don’t frequent boutique wine stores. I still bought the shiraz. Now I need to go hunt a wild boar.