Balance is what it's all about in a bottle of wine. When opened the "nose" should be inviting offering up notes of fruit or spices. That aroma should make you want to take a sip. And that taste should entice and enliven, not assault your palate. Too much tannin and it leaves a bitter taste. Too much residual sugar and it leaves a flabby, empty feeling. Too much wood or oak might be the winemaker masking bad juice.

An eye-appealing label and hefty price tag might make you think you are buying quality wine. But more often than not you are just paying the marketing bill or new tasting room at the winery. Your money is not going for what is inside the bottle. What you thought you were getting and what ends up in your glass are two very different things.

As I look at the proposed development for the corner of College and Broad Ripple Avenue I think of the same things.

The drawing of the plan does not show the houses, cars, VFW, stoplights, delicate sewer system or the mostly empty new parking garage across the street and retail space below it. It portrays the canal as more of a river rather than the charming, historic land mark it is.

It fails to include the fact that up the road a few blocks several lanes of traffic on College are being removed to install a bike trail thus creating traffic back ups to the north as well as the south. And that TIF money will help fund it.

When John Hill built the two buildings next to The Broad Ripple Brewpub they were done with taste and proportion. Balance. The look, the size, the purpose were all in step with the feel of Broad Ripple Village. Alas, the BRVA scolded him for doing so without its consultation and instead of encouraging his business to expand, left him to find new residents.

A similar situation occurred when Van Salon wanted to add another story to it's house/building on College, almost directly across from the proposed Browning development. Nearby neighbors brought up the fact that the plan was too big for the space leading to excess rainwater runoff, sewer troubles, parking and traffic that would all take away from the neighborhood. The BRVA listened and denied the expansion.

Balance. It's a matter of taste. And something we should think about whenever we put our money where our mouth is.

I'm not anti-big box or change in building or bottle. In fact my recommended wine this week is one you can find at Trader Joe's. And it's produced by E & J Gallo. Dark Horse Red. It's rich, lush and balanced. Inviting nose that leads into similar flavors of blackberry, black currant and mocha. And less than $10. Even big production wine can get back to its historic roots and produce new wine with the same character and quality it did when it first started.