Jumping the Shark in the Wine World
Baseball’s spring training is upon us and every respectable baseball geek knows what that means: Preparing for the draft of your fantasy baseball team. It’s a simple game. You draft a team with other geeks also drafting their team and you gain points throughout the season as the players you drafted perform well.
It got me thinking. Is there any reason there couldn’t be a Wine Fantasy League?
It works like this:
1. 25 Wine Geeks per League
2. In January, you draft your wineries with the intent of choosing those wineries whose wines you think will garner the highest scores from a selection of critics the league agrees to follow.
3. You each draft 20 wineries from any place on the globe.
4. From the wineries you draft, you must choose a total of 50 wines, using at least 1 wine from each drafted winery.
5. Players gain points for each review of a wine on their team
6. Points are allotted in exactly the same number as the score the wine receives. If a Napa Cab on my team scores 89 points from Robert Parker, 92 Points from the Wine Spectator and 90 Points from Wine & Spirits, my team has earned 271 points.
7. At the end of the year, points are tallied and the player with the most points wins whatever prize is initially determined.
The burning question is this: Would this be the ultimate case of “jumping the Shark” in the world of wine?
Ummmm, count me in.
Yes. That is jumping the shark. And the Snake River Canyon. And 47 school buses.
I’m not being cute or ironic when I say this: I am genuinely surprised no one has tried to monetize this idea yet.