Tasting makes inroads to non-wine fans

Monday, October 25, 2010
Jay and Tara Pagan try a wine sample at a wine tasting Saturday at the Waterin' Hole in Fillmore. Shawn Wilson of Carousel Wines pours a sample for the pair. Banner Graphic/JOSH GARVEY

FILLMORE -- When Tara Pagan has a bottle of wine open, she doesn't expect her husband to be interested.

"Normally, when I have a bottle open at home, he won't touch it," she said.

Jay Pagan said he might have to reconsider his stance after a wine tasting at the Waterin' Hole, a liquor store in Fillmore, Saturday night.

"Honestly, after drinking these, yeah, I might be changing my mind," he said. "These are actually really good."

Carousel Wines out of Bedford put on the tasting. Shawn Wilson, who ran the tasting, said Carousel is a family operation, with his parents and siblings as the other members of the winery.

He said the wine tasting was a favor to Rusty Anderson, the owner of the Waterin' Hole.

"It's a courtesy thing," Wilson said. "Rusty carries almost all our wines, and this is a chance for us to represent them properly and help him with sales."

Wilson talked with people who came into the liquor store about suggestions for different kinds of wines depending on what people said they liked.

Many who came into the liquor store said they weren't wine people, just like Jay Pagan. Some who tried the wines anyway seemed to change their minds.

Crystal Heidricks said she doesn't usually enjoy wine.

"I like Boone's Farm," she said.

After trying some of the Carousel wines, she said she enjoyed some of the wines she tried.

"I liked the Red Tiger Red," Heidricks said. "The blueberry, not so much."

Wilson said dessert wines are usually the most popular in Indiana.

"Indiana seems to have a sweet palate," he said.

To accommodate that, Carousel has a variety of fruit wines, including cherries, blueberries and pomegranates.

Anderson, the owner of the liquor store, said some of the people who he hoped would come to the tasting were busy elsewhere.

"Some of the people I thought might be here are at a political thing tonight," Anderson said. "They seemed really interested."

Even with that limitation, Wilson said that the store had sold more than 25 bottles of the wine during the tasting.

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