Something To Be Thankful For

I’ve been super-busy with work and the upcoming Jefferson Cup, but I’m also happy to say the past few days have been very encouraging. This week is pretty much our busiest week for wine sales (if you take out the handful of super-high end sales that sometimes skew the numbers). Last year I felt that people were only interested in buying image-based or “name” wines. The past several days have been eagerly reassuring.

First off, I’m thrilled to say we have been flying through Riesling. In fact, we’re almost sold out of the entire pre-order of German wines I did to get us through the holidays and into next year (I know, this also means I screwed up a bit, but hey…). Obviously, this is not just due to my work. Plenty of people have been singing the praises of Riesling lately. It goes great with most holiday fare, and the good German ones are not only cheap and yummy but can be served at almost any occasion, to any crowd. Additionally, the recent pattern of higher temperatures has resulted in a greater volume of quality German wines, a fact that has been widely reported throughout the wine media.

Next, the insistence of people to have particular “famed” wines doesn’t seem as prominent. Last year I felt that if I didn’t have Lewis, Etude, Kosta Browne, Sine Qua Non, Sea Smoke, or Shafer Hillside people thought I was a sub-standard retailer. Part of that was my inexperience—the rare customer who cries about not getting those things probably stood out in my mind more than it would now. Today we certainly got in a fair number of people were only interested in name Cali Cabs that have built PR images that outweigh the actual quality of the wine (in my opinion), but they just walked in, looked at our selection, and then choose I wine that I personally think is heavily overpriced before leaving happily.

As an aside, I think one particular encounter a few days before Christmas last year helped me get over all that. Two gentlemen were in to buy a gift, and they wanted to get Cakebread (how this wine has achieved the status it has is beyond me; in Cali wine right now nothing is hotter, and while the Chard, Cab, and Merlot are all quite nice, I think they are pricey and not as good as the insane hype they have right now). I showed him what we had, which was Sauv Blanc, Merlot, Chard, and Reserve Chard. This was a great selection of Cakebread given how scarce it was at the time, especially for retail. After walking through the store, the guy wanted to know if Cakebread had any $15 bottles. I’ve since accepted that some people don’t understand how wine works.

Some of my customers want a certain thing, and in some cases I can’t provide it. In other cases it doesn’t exist (a $15 bottle of Cakebread Cab). In those cases I just need to be polite and move on. In other cases they are looking for a wine that fits their needs, be it style, quality, desirability, cost, or just something to enjoy while sitting down. In those cases I can almost always provide a very, very, very good option. I’ve learned to focus my energies on helping those people.

So this year I’m very happy to say that people seem much more open-minded and encouraged about wine. I’ve spent the last several weeks pouring at least one Riesling on my Saturday tastings, and even a large number of the “I-don’t-drink-white-wine-especially-Riesling” crowd has acknowledged that good German Riesling is yummy. We’ve sold through a lot of Beaujolais Nouveau, but people are also interested in good Beaujolais from Morgon and Brouilly. For every person who asks where Yellow Tail is I have someone ask where the Spanish reds are (and they aren’t looking for the cheapest generic stuff).

In short, while there certainly is a segment of the market locked into believing the media hype or religiously believing the name Cali cabs of 18 years ago are still the greatest wines on the planet there is a healthy number of people who are willing to trust someone who works in the wine field everyday and has a vested interest in giving them good information and making them happy (that person would be me). Wine is supposed to be exciting, so the number of people willing to try a new thing is certainly an encouraging sign for me.

Next, it didn’t happen much, but at least twice this month I was asked about a particular writer’s recent comments. After multiple inquiries I Googled the name, and this person appears to have a well-trafficked blog and apparently a book due out next year. My sense is they are trying to increase their personal awareness by writing some fairly eye-catching and “intriguing in how irreverent they are” pieces designed to establish an against-the-mainstream-wine-media persona. Look, I have some major issues with The Wine Spectator and the Robert Parker elements. That doesn’t mean they are inherently wrong, or that they are the devil. Additionally, any critic that automatically rules out a particular style of wine or presumes a wine they once enjoyed that is now getting great press must have transformed into something stylized without real substance is missing the point. Describe the wine and help the audience find what they will enjoy. Don’t worry about fighting against any all-powerful demons in the media.

On that note, the Wine Spectator Top 100 is out, and I probably owe you a recap of it. First, my biggest beef is with how dated the list is in some instances (i.e. wines where the vintage they rate has long since sold-out and the new vintage has been available for in some cases a couple of months). Next, I still wonder how they get their pricing for some of the wines. Most importantly, the wines they list are for the most part really, really good wines you should try if you can find them and they are affordable. Are they the 100 best wines of the past 12 months? Of course not. Are they 100 outstanding wines? I’d say at least 90 of them are wonderful drinks that rate well above average for the money. Also, they do get credit for covering pretty much the whole globe with their selections.

Finally, I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and a perfect start to the holiday season.