Last week I snagged a free seat at the Giants game and all I had to do was pour some wine for it.

The view from our free club level seats.

The winery where Christine works is part of a promotion the Giants do to get their season ticket holders in the stadium for mid-week games. For about two hours before the game, various wineries will offer tastings for season ticket holders in the Club and Suite levels of the stadium.

Ticket holders can enjoy free wine and the Giants get butts in the seats on a Tuesday night. The winery reps get free Club level tickets to enjoy the game. Needless to say, it did not take much convincing for me to be willing to volunteer as a tasting rep to get my hands on some Giants tickets.

Pouring wine turned out to be more fun than I had expected. I met some interesting folks, and had a good time delivering a pitch on the terroir, taste and style of the four wines we had to offer that night. Most folks seemed to take the spiel in stride and I didn’t take any questions that stumped me. (As readers of this blog can likely attest, an ability to bull shit is among my few talents.) The game was great with plenty of action and the Giants taking a win from the NL champ Phillies.

Wine is not my beverage of choice for a baseball game. When I’m in the stadium, I’m drinking beer. It pairs better with the standard fare of baseball, like hot dogs and fries. I’ve been to a few games and sat with folks sipping Chardonnay and it just didn’t feel right. I know that’s not a good reason to look down on a glass of wine at the baseball game, but in some respects I’m rather traditional.

But who knows, with the growth of wine consumption in this country in 10 years it may be just as common to see a guy struggle to navigate the stairs at a stadium while holding a tray of nachos, hot dogs and four glasses of Pinot rather than lager.