I Want My WineTV!

Posted by Guest Author Katie Pizzuto

Imagine, if you will, an arena much like Iron Chef’s “kitchen stadium”—wine racks, decanters, corkscrews and stemware replace the food staples, appliances and dinnerware; master sommeliers replace the master chefs; and the overdramatic host no longer grins and bites into a pepper, but takes a swig from a Chianti-filled glass instead. The day’s challenge? Pairing wine with, oh I don’t know, let’s say barbeque. Each judge gets served 5 different dishes, each one with two different wines (one from each sommelier) and determine whose vino reigns supremo! I’d TiVo that, wouldn’t you?

Or perhaps in the same vain as “$40 A Day,” an equally jovial host can take us from city to city, telling us about the best local wines, the little off-the-beaten-track enotecas, and the bargain family-run wine shops...perhaps call the show “$20 A Bottle.” Heck, even take a personality like Alton Brown and give us a show on wine that might actually, ummm, I dunno, teach us something?!? Cooking shows and food-related shows are a dime a dozen right now. At any given moment you can channel surf and land on a “how to” a “history of” or a “from the country of” even if you completely bypass the Food Network. Anthony Bourdain has “No Reservations” on the Travel Channel (which I friggin’ love), Jacques Pepin has Fast Food My Way on PBS, Lidia Bastianich has “Lidia’s Family Table” on public television, etc. THIS IS NOT A BAD THING!