Author: Christy

The Perfect Wine Retailer’s Shoe

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: I found them on Zappos — where you can order thousands of dollars of cowboy boots, try them all on in the privacy of your own living room, send back the ones that hurt like hell and keep the two pairs that apparently were made for your very specific feet (in my case, Lucchese, size 9, gives a blister-less fit from the very first wearing.) I suppose I could have done that at a shoe shop, but pulling too-small cowboy boots off your feet is something best not done in public.

Originally published on March 27, 2009.

After almost a year and a half at the store, I have decided on the perfect shoe. This is a big deal because in my old corporate gig, I wore heels. Very high heels with pointy toes. This works when you’re only walking from your desk to a meeting or out to lunch. Doesn’t work so well when you’re in a wine store, hauling around cases, standing behind the register, and making local deliveries.

The first 6 months or so that the store was open, I was pregnant, so the shoe choice was further constrained by what I could fit my feet into. Mainly very flat, funky sneaker-type shoes from my previous pregnancies. Over the winter, I wore out two pairs of fairly flat calf-high boots. Now I’m back into those flat, funky sneaker things, which I’m really starting to hate. Apparently, I’m finally starting to miss my heels.

So what’s a wine-hauling, hand truck-pulling, heel-loving girl to do?

Cowboy boots. I have decided I need one (or a couple) pairs of cowboy boots. They have heels, yet they’re sturdy. They’re pointy, yet they’re comfortable (once you break them in.) And they can work with jeans or trousers.

Now I just need to buy a pair (or two.) Anyone know where the nearest cowboy boot store is to 66 West Broadway, Manhattan?

In Search of a Classic White Bordeaux

Originally published on March 26, 2009.

I’ve written about the buying grid before. Well, lately, there’s been a big hole in it. I’m in need of a classic Bordeaux Blanc, one that can sit on the shelf between $20 – $30. Ideally, right at $24.99. Ideally, from the Graves sub-region (the part of Bordeaux best-suited to dry, white wines.) And the style absolutely, positively has to be the classic Bordeaux Blanc style.

And what’s that, you ask?

Well, to start, Bordeaux Blanc (ok, white Bordeaux) is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. The Muscadelle grape is also allowed, but you don’t see it very often. Actually, you don’t see any of the grapes very often because their names don’t appear on the label. You just have to know.
To my taste buds, a “classic” white Bordeaux has a high percentage of Semillon in the blend, goes through barrel fermentaiton, and spends some additional time aging in barrel. This time in oak adds an element of creaminess and spice that is usually associated with Chardonnay. But the Sauv/Sem in the blend ensures a zippy acidity and notes of citrus and herbs that is very un-Chard-like.

The combination of creaminess + citrus + herbal notes make it the perfect match for almost anything in a cream sauce, especially if fish or any sort of fresh herbs are involved. Tonight, someone needed something to pair with a pasta dish prepared with cream sauce, zucchini and scallops. A classic white Bordeaux would have been perfect….

But alas, I didn’t have one to offer. I had been selling the Chateau Villa Bel-Air 2004 which had all of the above + the extra benefit of a little bit of age. Just under $25, it was a great buy. Little by little, I managed to drain the distributor of their entire supply. The last bottle was sold about 2 months ago and I’ve yet to find a suitable replacement.

Part of the problem is that a lot of white Bordeaux is now very New Zealand-esque: heavy on the Sauvignon Blanc, highly citrus/grapefruit driven fruit, oak-free, fresh and zingy rather than creamy. From a business standpoint, it’s a wise move. New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc has been growing like gangbusters. People love it. I love it. But if I want New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, I buy New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. If I want white Bordeaux….well, I haven’t been able to find a white Bordeaux I like because they all taste like New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

Alright, I exaggerate a bit. I know there is plenty of classic white Bordeaux out there. The current vintage of Chateau Villa Bel-Air 2007 could fill the slot…if I could put it in a time machine, age it for 3 years, and then bring it back to the shop. But that’s not an option. So I keep on searching…for the right wine….at the right price…with just that little bit of age on it…

Suggestions?

Fancy Pants Wine: Brogan Cellars

Originally published on March 23, 2009.

What in the world??? Two posts about actual wine in the same week?

Well, I am so excited about these wines, I didn’t want to keep them to myself. (Yes, if you get the newsletter, you already know this, but give me a break…I have 3 kids under 5, so I’m allowed to do a little cross posting. And I promise, this won’t be a total cut-and-paste job. Alright, it will be a total cut-and-paste job, but like I said, just give me a break.)

Here’s the scoop: If you’re a California Pinot-phile, you probably know the name Williams Selyem, the fabled winery that started making wine in a two-car garage and quickly became the top Pinot Noir producer in California. Founding winemaker Burt Williams sold the business in 1998, and is waiting for his non-compete agreement to run out before entering the winemaking fray. But the Williams Selyem wines still remain incredibly scarce, mainly available direct from the winery or popping up at the occasionally fine wine store (such as, perhaps, Frankly Wines.)

Whoa whoa whoa….I can hear you thinking, “Williams Selyem….but isn’t the fancy pants wine Brogan Cellars? Why aren’t you writing about Brogan Cellars? I’ve never even heard of Brogan Cellars.”

Well, the founding winemaker of Brogan Cellars, Margaret “Margi” Wierenga, is Burt Williams’s daughter. After more than a few years working at Williams Selyem, she started her own winery making small production Pinot Noir in a winery that was partially housed in….yes, déjà vu, an old garage. Production is truly small, with a total of 1,500 cases across all her various bottlings. And like father, like daughter, you can only get these wines off Margi’s mailing list, at top restaurants, and…at Frankly Wines!

We have two bottlings in stock:

Brogan Cellars Morning Dew Ranch 2007 (Anderson Valley):sourced from Papa Williams’s own vineyard. A little darker toned, a little more concentrated, a little more “California” than the Russian River Valley bottling. But with an alcohol level of only 13.6%, (ignore the label to the left, which probably exists through the magic of photoshop…the real label says 13.6%) this is hardly over-the-top Cali-style Pinot Noir. Price: $59.99

Brogan Cellars Russian River Valley 2007 (Russian River Valley): sourced from vineyard sites across the Russian River region, this bottling is a little more perfumed, with notes of cherries and spice. This wine is elegant, pretty, and dare we say sexy? Price: $59.99

We have less than two cases across both wines. Claim them quickly before we resist our accountant’s sound advice and claim them for ourselves.

Lend a Helping Hand Truck

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Sad to say that the handtrucks.com site doesn’t really exist any more. But thehandtruckcompany.com does!

Originally published on March 22, 2009.

The other day I was dropping off some wine for a recent event that Swirl Events was hosting. Anu, Swirl’s founder, and I got to talking about…no, not the wine I was dropping off, nor the event she was planning, nor any wonderful wines we had recently come across in our vast wine-drinking experience. We were talking about the hand truck I was using.

And it is a fabulous hand truck. It’s a Wesco Superlite Folding Hand Truck. Big rubber wheels, a retractable handle. Like the name says, it’s superlite and folds up to such a small size that on the way home from a delivery, I can just hang it over my shoulder and tuck it under my arm like a big purse…with wheels.

I love my hand truck. And no, you can’t borrow it. Buy your own at handtrucks.com (yes, this site really exists.)

Occasionally I write about wine

Originally published on March 20, 2009.

OK, time to get back into the swing of the blog thing. And what a better way to start than listing all the wine I tried today. Note I said “try”, not “drink”. If you’re not in the industry, there’s a very good chance you think all wine-industry people sit around and drink all day. Not true. 1) We spit and 2) we’re usually standing when we taste, either at behind the counter at the store or in front of a table at a distributor portfolio tasting.

Yesterday was a taste-from-behind-the-counter kind of day. We saw a total of seven different distributors, all but two with winemakers in tow. This matters because winemakers require more attention and better behavior than your regular sales rep. The winemakers (hopefully) know more about the wine than your sales rep, so they have more to say. And while some wine buyers may take pride in being rude to anyone who tries to sell them anything, I’m not one of them. If you’ve taken the appointment, you should at least pay attention, maybe ask some questions, try to learn something. Otherwise, don’t take the appointment.

Yesterday there were lots of appointments. Here’s what I had. (I’m working from memory here, so if any of my reps are reading this, give me a break if I’m wrong!)

Appointment #1:

  • Ribero del Dureos (Portugal), one from 2005, one from 2006. Always cool to try the same wine from two different vintages. One was filtered, one wasn’t so that was extra cool.
  • 1 Chinon, the winemaker’s 2nd vintage, which I liked more than the first, as did the winemaker.
  • Higher end Ribero del Duero. Something like 550 different parcels of land to add up to a total of 4 hectares. This is madness!

Appointment #2:

  • One very nice rose from an island just off the coast of Provence. Lots of mouvedre in the blend…may be why it reminded me of a Bandol rose at a fraction of the price.

Appointment #3:

  • High end Godello from Bierzo region of Spain.
  • Tempranillo/Granacha blend from La Mancha
  • Wacky blend of five different grapes which added up to a really nice wine that people will like a lot…even thought it’s a sort of geeky wine (for reasons I won’t go into for fear of seeming even geekier than I actually am.)

Appointment #4:

A veritable grab bag of goodies, including:

  • Nice Muscadet that made me wish for warm weather
  • Old vine Quincy (what, you’ve never heard of Quincy?? Come on!!! It’s in the Loire, like near Sancerre. OK, I’m a geek.) which is the more concentrated mate to the Quincy I currently carry.
  • Nice little Navarra (big day for Spain)
  • Bordeaux – either Cru Bourgeois or Bordeaux Superior, can’t remember, but primarily from St. Emilion fruit…ie mainly Merlot
  • Another Bordeaux – Grand Cru St. Emilion

Appointment #5:

  • 2 village-level Mersaults, one from 2005, one from 2006. Slightly different fruit sources, but still cool to taste the differences between sites and vintages.
  • 2 Premier Cru-level Mersaults, both 2006. Even cooler to see the difference between two different sites from the same year. These wines would retail somewhere between $70 – $100, so that just made the tasting even cooler. Man, they were good!
  • Premier Cru-level red burg by the same producer which we already carry and love. 10 minutes after the winemaker left, a regular customer came in and bought a bottle of this very wine. Would have been sweet if he’d gotten there 10 minutes earlier. Winemakers love to see real customers buying their wine.

Appointment #6:

  • Value-oriented producer from Washington and Oregon (there’s really no reason a winery has to stick to one state, although most do). Pinot Grigio (OR), Chardonnay (WA), Pinot Noir (OR), and Cabernet (WA). In addition to the wines, lots of gossip about distributors and the wine-in-grocery-store legislation, and discussion about the FCC’s policy about not showing butt cracks on TV.

Appointment #7:

  • 1 Menetou-Salon Blanc (never heard of this region either? Come on now…it’s near Quincy!!)
  • 1 Valencay (also in the Loire, as is Quincy) – a blend of Gamay, Malbec, Cab Franc, and Pinot Noir, which I think is actually every red grape allowed anywhere in any of the AOC regions in the Loire Valley (and if I’m wrong on that, please don’t tell me.)

Whew! I think I need a beer.

Why I Love My Daily Postal Delivery

Originally published on March 11, 2009.

In the world of wine retailing, snail mail is still a much used form of communication and commerce.

In the non-wine world, most vendors will allow you to pay on-line. In many cases, you can make ACH payments directly from your bank account without leaving the comfort of your computer screen. Not so much when it comes to paying wine distributors -this is still very much the land of envelopes, stamps, and paper checks.

Because of this, I’m much more in tune with the minutia of the postal service than I have been since, oh, I had a pen pal back in 6th grade. I know where all the postboxes are on the way to all the neighborhood coffee shops. I know their pick-up times on weekdays and Saturdays. I know how many automated machines there are at each of the two closest post offices, as well as their latest drop off times for same day send-off. I’m possibly as well qualified to answer local postal questions as I am wine questions. And I always have stamps. Always.

So it’s not surprising that I actually look forward to my daily postal delivery. The distributors often send out exciting communications that they actually expect you to read. And sometimes they’ll send you the single, solitary copy of an invoice that they actually expect you to pay. Like yesterday…I received a paper invoice for $0.50. Yes, fifty cents. In an envelope that took $0.42 worth of postage to mail. On a piece of paper that probably took some employee $0.08 of time to mail. No further comment necessary on that one.

Yesterday I also received 1/4 of an envelope with 1/4 of each of two checks in it. Lucky for me, the snippet of envelope had my return address on it, so the USPS was able to send it back to me. Also lucky for me, the snippets of checks were still in the envelope so I was able to figure out which distributor to call to tell them their valuable piece of paper was going to be late. (Because if your payment is late, you get reported to the state’s “delinquent list” and effectively go into wine detention, also known as C.O.D….but that’s a story for another post.)

I guess when you contribute disproportionately to the 202 billion pieces of mail handled each year (I know this, because it was in the letter the USPS sent with my mangled envelope) a few of those precious posts are going to wind up on the wrong side of the postal gods.

Frankly Wines, Apatasgi Hungarian Tramini, and the New York Times

Originally published on February 21, 2009.

There’s this little paper you may have heard of…The New York Times? Every Sunday, wine writer Howard Goldberg features a wine under $20 in the City section. This week he features one of the Frankly Wines favorites…the Pannonhalmi Apatsagi Pinceszet Tramini. And he mentions Frankly Wines as the place to get it!

For Mr. Goldberg’s view, checkout his column here.

He calls it a knockout, and we’re inclined to agree. Winning plenty of obscurity points, the Apatsagi is a Gewurztraminer from Hungary. It also wines points on flavor, refreshingingness, bottle coolness, and affordability. How many points? Let’s say 1,328.695.

That’s a lot of points for $12.99!

Valetine’s Day – When Wine Retailers Celebrate Christmas

Originally published on February 15, 2009.

Wine store owners, at least wine store owners that actually manage their own stores, are essentially chained to their counter from Thanksgiving until New Year’s Day. It’s no different for many types of retailers, but since I only own a wine store, I can only speak for wine store owners.

Given that my family lives several states away, we’re only just getting to celebrate Christmas now…on Valentine’s Day. Postponing Christmas has certain advantages, like postponing the gift buying until after the holiday rush. And avoiding the craziness of holiday travel. And enjoying the traditional pink Valentine’s Day tree….

….OK, we don’t really have a pink tree, but it would be cool if we did.

Happy Xmastine’s Day!

Days That Drive a Wino to Drink

Originally published on February 12, 2009.

What I’m about to describe isn’t exactly a typical day. Most days, at least in my little retail universe, are a mix of placing orders, writing checks, chasing down distributors who always seem to lose my checks, printing out shipping labels, picking out mixed cases, helping customers, fighting with the cash registers, dusting, putting stickers on bags, sorting out deliveries, stocking shelves, and maybe tasting through a few wines with a sales rep or two, occasionally with a winemaker in tow.

Wednesday was a little bit different.

I started out with my 10am blind tasting group. On deck, 5 different wines made from the ever popular Tannat grape. On the off-chance you haven’t heard, Tannat is the star grape of such star regions as Madiran, Irouleguy, and Uruguay. It’s inky dark, deeply tannic, and perfect with steak, stews, or cassoulet. Not exactly breakfast wine, but what can you do when duty calls. There are 2 Tannats at Frankly Wines and we’ll probably be getting a third soon….because every boutique wine store should have 1 Tannat for ever 100 square feet of floor space. It’s in the manual.

NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: It’s totally not in the manual. First, there is no manual. And second, if there was a manual, it would most certainly advise against having more than one Tannat at a time, period.

Blind tasting finished, I brushed my purple teeth and headed off to a winemaker lunch at Alto. I love winemaker lunches…especially when I don’t have to plan them. This one was with Elizabetta Foradori, possibly the chicest Italian grower/winemaker I’ve yet to meet. She does magic with the Teroldego grape which, on the (probable) chance you’ve never heard of it, is a very old grape that makes its home in the northern alpine reaches of Italy. Some day soon I’ll go on about my growing fascination with alpine wines, but for now, I’ll just lay out what we tasted: 2 vintages of Myrto (a white made from the very non-international grape Incrocio Manzoni), the current vintage of Elizabetta’s Teroldego Rotliano (a fresher, younger-drinking style of Teroldego) and 6 vintages of her more serious, age worthy Granato (also made from Teroldego) going back to 1986. That’s 9 wines. For lunch. Survival tactics include lots of bread, a gallon of water…and a conveniently-located red plastic spit cup by my place setting. Red plastic may not seem terrible chic, but neither is a table full of drunken wine buyers.

Lunch over, teeth brushed again, and off to a Burgundy tasting at the Design building. Less zoo-like than I had expected, but still plenty of of French spoken, plenty of men in suits, and plenty of elbows making their way to the Grand Cru wines. I settle in next to a spit bucket and concentrate on distinguishing the Volnays from the Pommards, while dodging elbows and spit streams, balancing my glass, scribbling highly evocative tasting notes like “powerful”, “more perfume than the last one”, “a little more earthy”, “berries”, and muttering in fake French. I generally ignore the price list, as one 6-packs of some of these wines would suck up most of my weekly open-to-buy. There are probably 20 tables at the tasting. I make it to about 5 before the tasting ends and I head outside.

Going for full-on contrast to my Foradori lunch at Alto, I have a hot dog and bad coffee for my 5.30PM snack. Then off to the International Wine Center for my weekly Diploma wine class. This week,we’re studying the Loire, a region best loved by fashionable Parisians and New York-based wine geeks. We’re learn that come test time, even if you smell stone fruits in your Pouilly-Fume, you should say you smell melon, because it will make the graders happy. There’s a discussion about whether a wine is medium+ alcohol or high alcohol. And another about the odd purple color of a Cabernet Franc, which looks suspiciously like a Malbec. We taste 7 different wines, and I realize I’ve already drunk 4 of them at some point in the recent past, outside of class. Of the other 3, I’ve had similar styles from different producers. Since I’m not a fashionable Parisian, that must make me a New York-based wine geek.

As if a day filled with 5 Tannats, a Teraldego vertical, and a bunch of Burgundies hadn’t already proved that point.

People Love the Corks!

Originally published on February 4, 2009.

This is a little after the fact, but check out Dr. Vino’s post on Frankly Wines and the increasingly famous cork wall. There’s a picture included if you haven’t actually seen the cork wall live and in person. Just ignore the boxes piled in front of the counter, and various piles of stuff on the counter, the empty bottles sitting behind the counter…..obviously my art director was out to lunch.