Did you, or do you, ever watch game shows?  We grew up when these shows were at their peak in popularity.  Weekday mornings had game shows starting at 9 a.m. and lasting through 11 a.m.–when the soaps came on.  And then, they geared up again in the afternoon around 3 until 5 p.m.  You’ve heard of Password, Split Second, The Joker’s Wild, The $10,000 Pyramid, The Price Is Right, Family Feud, Tattletales, Name That Tune, Wheel of Fortune and the list goes on and on.  While the game was different, the premise was the same – try to outsmart, out-think, out-guess, out do your competitor(s) for a chance at cash and prizes.  Who didn’t sit there and answer the questions with a question on Jeopardy?  The Answer Is:  The Daily Double!!!

Game shows are ingrained in the fabric of American pop culture.  From their beginnings on radio – way before television – to their acknowledgment of their importance in the 1994 movie, Quiz Show, our love affair with game shows has never wavered.  And, what makes these shows – all game shows for that matter – so intriguing is that they’re ALL formatted on the single thought that making an educated guess can be overcome by an emotional guess, and the results will either be fame and fortune or shame and losing.  Being hardcore trivia buffs, we’ve often answered, oh, we’d guess – 90% of the questions in most of these shows from the comfort of our home sofa.  You’ve probably done the same thing . . . given ample time to make an educated guess on a question or a price or a survey, you’ve probably done better than most contestants.

Having actually been a contestant on a game show, Brian agrees that making an educated guess when you’re on stage with lights on, cameras rolling and Bob Barker standing in your face looking for an answer, goes right out the window!  At that point it’s pure adrenaline – from your family screaming, the audience screaming and the sheer fright of NOT wanting to mess up!  It’s amazing how much easier it was to make an educated guess on the price of the car sitting at home than it was on stage  . . . which brings us to our wine tonight.  We’ll save photos and the story of the “Price is Right Microwave” for another night.

We enjoyed a 2010 Educated Guess Cabernet Sauvignon from Roots Run Deep Winery in St. Helena, California.  While we’ve enjoyed previous vintages of this little gem, the 2010 version is ready for pouring right now.  Upon opening the bottle and pouring some of the wine into our glasses, we were mesmerized by the toasted oak and coffee on the nose–it was intoxicating to enjoy the vanilla on the mid-palate and the fruit on the finish.  A dinner of homemade pizza with lots of Italian seasoning, garlic, veggies and prosciutto ham was the perfect food with this wine.  We ‘guessed’ that as good as this wine was tonight; laying it down for a few months would make it even better.  Roots Run Deep Winery has been around since 2005 and prides itself on sustainable wine making.  A trip to their website helped us to get a better idea of how they make their wines and much more.  We’d guess that they’ve gotten pretty good at wine making over the past seven years and this 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon is a testament to good wine making.

So, the next time your friends ask you to “Come On Down” or to pick a vowel or to guess the Password, you can make an Educated Guess before answering them.  More importantly, if your friends ask you to come on over, bring a bottle of this wine and you’ll get past the guessing stage and right onto the knowledgeable stage!!

Please remember to enjoy this wine responsibly and recycle whenever possible.