Woodbridge Wines and Baseball (MLB, Hot Dogs, Minor Leagues, Seattle Mariners Stadium Food)

Transcript and Show Notes

Episode 25: Woodbridge Wines and Baseball (MLB, Hot Dogs, Minor Leagues, Seattle Mariners Stadium Food) 00:00

Hello! And welcome to the Wine Pair podcast. I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and wine-pairing partner in crime - Carmela. And we are the Wine Pair.

This is episode 25, Carmela! Woo Hoo!

Alright, for this week’s episode, Carmela, we went back and forth on a lot of topics, and there were a few that you just flat out said no to. Which is fair. Your instinct is usually pretty good.  I think we finally figured out what we want to talk about. What do you think?

With professional baseball season just getting underway in the last week or so, after some drama relating to a lock out the owners instated based on labor issues - which is really boring - that caused a delay in the season getting started - we  thought it would be a fun tie-in to do an episode related to baseball. Something timely, you know. 

https://sportsnaut.com/mlb-lockout/ 

So, today we are going to talk about wines and baseball, with a particular focus on wines you will probably find at a baseball stadium. Now, I know most people think about sports like baseball and what, Carmela?  Beer, which makes sense, because a lot of the food that is traditionally eaten at baseball games and other sporting events is, well, how do I say it - not exactly what you would typically pair with wine.

But times are changing!

Professional sports teams are really upping their game when it comes to food choices - especially since the price of going to a game is so high now -  and that also means they are upping their game in drink choices, and it also just feels to me like there are customers going to ball games that just don’t want to dink beer, so wine is just becoming part of the core concessions, food, whatever you call it experience. 

In fact, did you know that there is an official wine sponsor for Major League Baseball? I bet you can guess who it is? Woodbridge Wines by Robert Mondavi is the official partner of Major League Baseball

So, today, we are going to talk about what wines you might find at a baseball game, and today, we have three wines from Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi. This will be really interesting, although I use that word way, way too much - and I am going to keep an open mind on these wines and this wine producer. 

And why three wines you may ask? Well, it’s simple, and time for our shameless plug - each week on our podcast we taste and review three reasonably priced wines - that means under $20 - that should be easy to find. We release a new episode every week, and we would love it if you would give us a review and, oh I don’t know, a 5-star rating, please subscribe if you like us, and tell your significant other that you should listen to us together while you are driving in the car. 

Topic: Favorite Baseball Stadium Foods  06:30

But, as we always do in each episode, we are going to take our customary left turn, and talk a little bit about something that is at least tangentially related to our wines, and this week we are going to talk a little bit about baseball, baseball stadiums, and baseball food. 

Although I have to admit that I don’t really love watching baseball on TV, and I was a terrible baseball player growing up, it is true that baseball is one of my favorite sports to watch in person. I especially love going to minor league games, and we have a single A club here in the Seattle area called the Everett Aqua Sox that is affiliated with the Seattle Mariners, and I love, love, love going to those games. I think my kids think I’m nuts, but, Carmela, do you know why I love going to those games? For a few reasons

• The stadiums are small, and you feel like there are no bad seats and you are right on top of the field
• The players are young and hungry
• The team is really connected to the community in a way that major league just can’t be. There are kids on those baseball teams that live with local families. It’s remarkable. 
• And you still get a lot of the fun and food etc. that you get at the big stadiums. 

But, back to major league baseball, it is really amazing how much the food and beverage choices have blossomed over the past 20 years, way beyond the typical hot dog, soft pretzel, peanut, and popcorn days. Not that I don’t love those things because I really do, but the kinds of foods you find now are just amazing. I guess they have to have food that goes along with the ridiculously high ticket prices. 

Here is a list of the items you can get at our local baseball park called T-Mobile Park, the home of our terrible Seattle Mariners. Who, we pray, will have a good season this year. Actually, they played really hard last year and were just a few games out of getting to the one game playoff, but for the last bit they have been really, really bad, and have kind of always been pretty mediocre except for a few great years in the mid-1990s and the early 2000s. Ok, are you ready for this list?  https://www.mlb.com/mariners/ballpark/top-eats 

• You can get barbecue, like ribs and brisket
• You can get sushi. Like the ICHIROLL and you can also get poke
• You can get tacos, you can get fish and chips, you can get sub sandwiches and cheesesteaks
• You can get pork buns and wonton soup at Din Tai Fung
• You can get burgers from local favorites like Kidd Valley and Lil Woodys
• I think you can get the famous Seattle dog their with cream cheese which is really good
• You can get an Ivar dog
• And you can get fried grasshoppers. I am not kidding you. 

What is your favorite, go-to, baseball game food?!? You are not really a hot dog lover, are you? You actually got pissed when I said that I was thinking about doing a show on pairing wine and hot dogs. Why is that?

What, Carmela, was the best overall stadium food experience we ever had. Hint, it really wasn’t about the quality.The best ever was when the Sounders first started and we were in the section where they gave away free food. Not a joke. 

Wine choices at Major League Baseball Stadiums 14:50

Ok, but with that food, you have got to have something to drink, and it seems recently we have been seeing a lot more wine around professional sports. A lot of stadiums are starting to serve canned wine along with beer choices, and many have bars all over the stadium where you can buy wine along with beer. 

Now, I think a lot of the time the wine at the ballpark is not going to be great, but we are going to test that out a little bit today. However, there are some ballparks that are really starting to go all out with wine. The Yankees have a wine bar called the City Winery Bar in their new stadium, and the Padres in San Diego called the Meritage Wine Market. 

And now, at the Seattle Mariners stadium (T-Mobile park), they actually just opened a wine bar that is run by Chateau Ste. Michelle called The Chateau by Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery. They carry both their signature wines as well as other wines made under the Chateau Ste. Michelle umbrella, like H3 and Borne of Fire. 

https://www.mlb.com/press-release/press-release-mariners-welcome-chateau-ste-michelle-wines-to-t-mobile-park#:~:text=The%20Seattle%20Mariners%20today%20announced,The%20Chateau%20by%20Chateau%20Ste.

https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/chateau-ste-michelle-partners-with-mariners-bring-wine-ballpark/WY7YPRL6JFEI5P76UNM6CF4UGA/

But, we were also torn when we were trying to find wines for this episode because we have done some Chateau Ste. Michelle wines, and we also want to do other episodes about their wines, so instead, we chose three wines from the Official Partner of Major League Baseball: Woodbridge wines by Robert Mondavi.We wanted to choose wines that were aligned with baseball, and we wanted to make sure that in our podcast we are reviewing wines that you can find easily in stores and that are reasonably priced, and Woodbridge wines are certainly those.

Woodbridge Wines by Robert Mondavi and Major League Baseball 16:30

Woodbridge is the economy brand of Mondavi wines, the wines that you find a bit lower on the shelf at a grocery store. And, overall I would say the Mondavi is not a high priced brand, and is what we would call an approachable, value priced brand. These wines are definitely for every day drinking, not for storing in a cellar. In fact, I am not sure that any of these wines have dates on them, so they are meant to be drunk when you get them. 

These were very SUPER reasonably priced, by the way. All of these wines were not only on sale at $8.99 at a local Kroger owned store called Fred Meyer, but I got the magnum or 1.5 liter size - so these are like MEGA sized wines and a ridiculous amount of wine for two people. Three bottles is bad enough, but three magnums is like ludicrous speed. A magnum is two bottles, or about 10 bottles of wine, so the bottle equivalent prices is like $4.50. Now, we are NOT going to be able to finish these wines, BUT we are going to a family party after our recording, so I think we are going to bring these wines along for people to finish. 

And, although Woodbridge is not a top tier wine, and the price point is pretty low, the idea here is not to bag on Woodbridge wines. We are going to be open minded, and we are going to give them a fair shot. In fact, I kind of wish we could just do the review as a blind tasting against other wines just to be more fair. We will tell you what we really think, but we are trying really hard to be honest and not go into our tasting with any preconceived notions or biases. 

https://woodbridgewines.com/pages/baseball

And you made a really good point earlier to me when I told you how much we paid for the wine - at a baseball stadium, a single glass of wine is probably $9 or more, so the cost is really nothing. 

Now, because there are a wide variety of wines, but some you are more likely to find at a ballpark, and because we think that you will probably be eating some of the traditional ball park fare, we have chosen three wines we think will represent well and are probably fair expectations for what people will drink - hot dogs, gooey cheese nachos, peanuts, popcorn as well as some of the fancier foods:

• Cabernet (wine enthusiast has called it a best buy)
• Pinot Noir
• Lightly oaked Chardonnay

I was tempted to choose the red blend, but went with the Pinot instead. I also would have liked to have found the Zinfandel or white Zinfandel, but no luck at the store I went to.. 

Food with hot dogs: https://www.eater.com/drinks/2015/7/29/9062579/what-is-the-best-wine-to-drink-with-hot-dogs 

https://sipmagazine.com/6-ballpark-wine-pairings-win/

Other food and wine pairings at MLB stadiums

https://www.one37pm.com/sports/mlb-opening-day-wine 

What Woodbridge by Mondavi is supposed to be: Fruit-focused wines for everyday drinking

https://woodbridgewines.com/collections/our-wines 

Most popular baseball snacks in every stadium: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/78155/15-home-run-facts-about-most-popular-ballpark-snacks 

All right, enough of this jibber jabber, let’s get to it! 

Wines and Ratings for the Woodbridge Wines  20:05

Wine: Woodbridge Lightly Oaked Chardonnay

Region: California, Central Coast

Producer: Robert Mondavi Woodbridge Winery

Year: NV

Price: $8.99 (1.5 Liter, $4.50 bottle equivalent) That is 10 glasses of wine!!!

Retailer: Fred Meyer

Alcohol: 13%

Grapes: Chardonnay

What we tasted and smelled: Oak, pear, apple, pineapple, touch of tropical fruit, smooth, pleasant, a little cream, a little butter, cinnamon, spice, nutmeg, baking spices, tannin.

Food pairing with: Ivar dog, fish, fish and chips, nachos and cheese

Rating: 

• Joe:  6
• Carmela:  7

Wine: Woodbridge Cabernet Sauvignon

Region: California (all over)

Producer: Robert Mondavi Woodbridge Winery

Year: Non-Vintage

Price: $8.99 (1.5 Liter, $4.50 bottle equivalent)

Retailer: Fred Meyer (Kroger)

Alcohol: 13.5%

Grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon

Professional Rating: WE 86 in 2015

What we tasted and smelled: Smells like wine, smoke, juicy red grapes, alcohol, cherry, red berry, smooth, a lot going on in your mouth, very tannic. Tastes like wine. Caramel, brown sugar, or chocolate at the end.

Food pairing with: Pizza, burger, grilled hot dog

Rating: 

• Joe: 5
• Carmela: 5

Wine: Woodbridge Pinot Noir

Region: California, Lodi

Producer: Robert Mondavi Woodbridge Winery

Year: NV

Price: $8.99 (1.5 Liter, $4.50 bottle equivalent)

Retailer: Fred Meyer

Alcohol: 13.5%

Grapes: Pinot Noir

What we tasted and smelled: Cherry, red licorice, Red Vine, Twizzler, cherry nibs, blackberry, smoke, rose petal, flower, spice, pepper. Sweetness, cotton candy, cherry sour balls.

Food pairing with: Hot dog, peanuts, gooey cheese nachos. Ball park food. 

Rating: 

• Joe: 5
• Carmela: 5

Which one of these are you finishing tonight?

• Carmela: Lightly Oaked Chardonnay
• Joe: Cabernet Sauvignon

Taste profiles expected from Lightly Oaked Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir:  38:53

• Lightly Oaked Chardonnay
  • From the website: Aromas of citrus, lemon cream, and flowers. From the bottle - also green apple. 
  • Vibrant flavors of white nectarine and citrus, crisp with just a touch of oak creaminess
  • Others: Honeydew melon, peach, apricot, tropical fruit, ginger. 
  • Classic unoaked: apple, lemon. Can be similar to a Sauvignon Blanc. 
• Cabernet
  • From the website: aromas of cherries, berries, cedar, brown sugar, and toast. Flavors of berries, toasted marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers with a toasty caramel finish. 
  • Classic: black cherry, black currant, cedar, baking spices, graphite. 
  • California: Black Currant, Blackberry, Pencil Lead, Tobacco, Mint
  • Others: Plum, black pepper, vanilla, licorice
• Pinot Noir
  • From the website: The bright aromas of strawberry and cherry notes accented by hints of spice and toast. Bottle also says a hint of cocoa
  • Fruit-forward flavors, and a touch of toasty oak. 
  • Classic: Cherry, raspberry, mushroom, clove, hibiscus.
  • California: Cherry, Raspberry, Allspice, Darjeeling Tea, Vanilla
  • Others: Rose petal, potting soil

Outro and how to find us 41:38

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