Dear Customer,
Do not send the cheapest, least knowledgeable person you know to shop for wine for your dinner or party. If you do, I will assume you don’t give a shit what you’re drinking and send your friend off with shitty pinot grigio and cheap pinot noir.
If you want good wine, come shopping yourself.
Recently I hosted a California Wine Tasting. It was a great success. When I got home, full of pride and with a box full of leftovers, Jeff said “Are those the spoils of victory?”
Here are some of the highlights:
California Wine Tasting
Dear Distributor,
If you haven’t called on me in eight months, you are very bad at your job. Do not be surprised when I don’t invite you to participate in an event I organized a month ago with reps who actually call on me regularly. You clearly aren’t worth my time. I don’t want to taste your wines, I don’t want to sell them, I don’t want to make you money. Get out of my store.
In the early afternoon hours on Tuesday, February 1st, it started snowing. And snowing. And snowing. Winds were gusting up to forty-five miles per hour. Here’s what it looked like from my front door when it all started:
It finally stopped about ten the next morning, and somewhere along the line we accumulated around eighteen inches of snow. There were drifts in my yard about four feet high. My mailbox was almost completely buried.
Blizzard
Then, to top it off, the temperature dropped and we had a windchill of -5 degrees. Roads were closed for hours. Schools all over Chicagoland were closed for two days. Even the store I work at shut down for a full day. It was total insanity.
On the plus side, I didn’t have to leave my property for two and half wonderful, peaceful days. I turned into a cooking and baking machine. There was potato soup and beef stew. Ghirardelli hot chocolate. Pasta Bolognese. And cookies- chocolate chip and assorted kolackies which I shared with our awesome neighbors who helped us dig out.
Blizzard Wine
And, of course, there was wine. The first evening I enjoyed a nice but unremarkable pinot. During the afternoon of the second day, after the shoveling and hot chocolate, I drank a lovely moscato d’Asti, which gets a bad rap in my line of work, but can be quite a nice little treat. But it was a fabulous little Spanish number that has truly stayed with me and will, for the rest of my life, be my 2011 Blizzard Wine.
Barbazul, by the tiny bodega Huerta de Albala, hails from Andalucia, the region in southwestern Spain known best for sherry. It is a blend of cabernet, syrah, merlot and a varietal indigenous to the area called tintilla de rota. It was light to medium bodied, with ripe but balanced berry flavors, notes of baking spices and a hint of sweet vanilla. I found it deliciously spicy and zesty, especially considering its modest $13 price tag. It was incredibly juicy and tasty, a very nice accompaniment to the pasta; but most importantly, just right for a shut-in in February.
Dear Customer,
Get off the phone. If you are even considering taking a call or texting while in the store, don’t bother seeking me out. I will ignore you. Seriously, I’m not going to waste my time with you if you can’t focus for three minutes. I will actually go out of my way to avoid you if I see a cell phone in your possession, because that means I will get a wag of the finger and there’s a good chance you’ll only pay attention to half the things I say. Plus, your conversation is annoying. I really don’t care about your life, and neither do any of the other customers that are forced to listen to you. Please. You’re not that important.
In the past few weeks I’ve had the opportunity to taste many sparkling wines. They came in all shapes and sizes, in different colors, from all over the world. Some truly stood out, including Perrier Jouet Grand Brut, Egly Ouriet Vrigny and Taittinger Rose.
But honestly, only one was exceptionally unique. FRV 100 is a sparkling rosé from Beaujolais made in the style of Cerdon de Bugey: Fruity, slightly sweet, effervescent and just fabulous. Quite simply, this wine is delightful. Fresh, bright cherries burst from the glass, with flavors of sweet strawberries and slight hints of candy and bubble gum. I know it sounds silly but I absolutely LOVE this wine with crispy, salty fried chicken.
Think outside the box and enjoy!
Dear Customer,
Thank you.
Thank you for challenging me. Thank you for teaching me, for listening to me, for entertaining me. Thank you for motivating me to study and improve my craft. Thanks for allowing me to poke fun at you on the internet.
Most of all, thank you for buying enough wine to keep my company in business and pay me to do what I love.
Last weekend a customer told me “You’d be a goddess if you could tell me where the Sutter Home White Zinfandel is.”
I wish it was always that easy.
