This fall, reality television comes to Wine Country
as a group of six men and women compete for a chance to create
and launch their own wine label. The show, which will air on
PBS next spring, is a take off of shows like "The Apprentice",
where contestants are pit against each other over several weeks
to come up with the best plan for launching their label. According
to the producers, the show will be taped in Paso Robles during
September and October, airing in the spring of 2007.
The series, aired in six parts, will follow the cast--coming not just from the wine industry, but from all walks of life--as they struggle to overcome obstacles in the fiercely competitive wine industry. The contestants will take part in every aspect of wine making, from viticulture and enology to sales and marketing. Who'll make it to the bottle and who'll end up on the lees is anyone's best guess.
Recently, the show had a casting call in San Francisco, where local winemaking enthusiast Alan Baker tried out for a part. Baker, who hosts a podcast show from Healdsburg called The Rat Cast says that he was asked a number of tough questions for the camera and that he's not sure his personality was "big" enough to pass through to the finals. He and a number of other winemakers and winemaking enthusiasts from the area waited for more than four hours for the chance to audition at the CrushPad winery in San Francisco during a recent Paso Robles tasting. The contestants were quizzed about their wine knowledge, what sorts of wine they'd want to make and personality quirks.
The
show is also casting in 15 U.S. cities, including Atlanta, Austin,
Dallas, New York as well as internationally.
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