Category: Behind the Counter

That Customer #4: The Unreliable Witness

Originally published on March 30, 2010.

Police officers and detectives will readily tell you that people make lousy witnesses. Ask ten witnesses to recall what they saw on a crime scene and chances are very good you’ll get ten different answers. As it goes with crime scenes, so it goes with wine stores.

Now this is the best case scenario – where we sold the wine and can definitively recall exactly what was sold.

More often though, the customer had the wine at a friends house or at a restaurant. With no recollection of the producer. Or the region. Or the grape. But….they’ll definitely know it if they see it.

So we find ourselves gently explaining that hoping to stumble upon that wine is the equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack. Not that we start quoting statistics, but here are some numbers to mull over:

  • In California alone, there are 2,843 bonded wineries. (I looked that one up on the Wine Institute site.)
  • Let’s say each of those wineries produces 5 different wines. (If you’ve ever been to a winery tasting room, you know this is a conservative estimate.)
  • That’s over 14,000 wines. And that’s just California. Throw in the rest of the world and you get to a very big number very quickly. 

I don’t think any other consumer product has nearly so many labels on offer.  Think about toothpaste. Even if you throw in every earthy/crunchy organic producer, private label and near-prescription grade brand, you can probably only come up with 20. (If you can think of more, list them and I you’ll win a bottle of something. Unless you work for Colgate or Proctor and Gamble.  Then you’re disqualified.)

Wine is a just bit more fragmented.  So hoping to recall that random bottle from two weeks ago is highly unlikely. Because 1) unless you’re a highly trained detective, you’re an unreliable witness and probably wouldn’t recognize it even if you see it. And 2) because you’re probably not going to see it.
So don’t be That Customer.

Jot down the name. Or take a picture with your phone. And then we can help you find it, special order it, or pick out something similar.  Then you can be a Happy Customer instead.

Another Winemaker is Coming!

Originally published on March 23, 2010.

So we’ll be hosting another winemaker at Frankly Wines tonight: Tuesday, March 23, 5.30pm – 7.30pm

Raimond de Villeneuve of Chateau de Roquefort will be pouring his Clairette, Corial rose, and Guele de Loup, all of which are regulars on our shelves. Biodynamic, all between $15 – $20, all very, very tasty.

In the picture, he’s sporting a lovely red clown nose (a nez rouge) which I’ll be asking him about tonight. The picture is from a slightly surreal French website: Momo le Clown Gourmand. It features a very extensive who’s who of the French wine and culinary world – all sporting red clown noses. Seriously. It’s worth checking out. And make sure you have the volume on because it also plays some catchy traditional French tunes, which imagine are about clowns.

So back to the wines. If we’re lucky, Raimond will bring along some samples of his higher end wines. The cases are on a boat making its way to the ports of New Jersey, but yesterday at his distributor’s portfolio tasting, he had a few samples open. There was the Momentum, which is a new wine that is made to tilt a bit more to the American palate. This generally means more fruit, more ripeness and more oak, often the point of overdone. In this case, the wine was just a bit more…more. Still very much in the same style as the other wines, with just a little more there there. It was tasty, but I preferred his other two wines, Poupre and Rubrum. These are wines that would sit at around $35 and $60 on the shelf. They’re both what I simply call Provencal kitchen soup blends (some combination of Syrah, Carignan, Grenache, Mourvedre, and possibly Cinsault) and are only made in years when Raimond feels the grapes warrant it. Which is not every year. I think he said he’s only made the Pourpre three times in many years, but I will confirm that tonight. The Pourpre is all ripe, vivid fruits with an underlying freshness. The Rubrum shows more Mourvedre and has the brambly, baked earth (that’s baked earth, not baked fruit. Very very different things.) quality that I love about my favorite Provencal wines.

Anyhow, if we’re lucky, we’ll have some of those to taste tonight. If not, we’ll be stocking them as soon as the cases clear customs.

The Things That People Want to Know

Originally published on March 18, 2010.

Time to do the period round up of search terms that land the user on the pages of the Frankly Wines blog.

Last month, someone wanted to know how a “20 year old J Roget sparkling wine tastes.” This one makes me laugh because the last time I drank a bottle of J Roget was almost 20 years ago. It was the pre-formal tipple of choice. Nothing said fancy-formal-dance-pre-party like a case filled with $5 bottles of bubbles. But please don’t do the math. It both dates me and possibly incriminates me.

Apparently my site has also become a key resource for people looking to learn the finer points of counting out a cash drawer.

Burning cash-drawer related questions included many variations on the following (with my answers in parenthesis):

  • how to count out a cash drawer
  • a quick way to count nickels in a cash drawer (5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30…..)
  • how to count bills with one hand (I have no idea)
  • which side do ones go cash drawer (the far right)
  • how to count to 200 with 20 dollar bills (if you’re able to type in this query and read the answer….well, do you really need to ask this question?

It’s good to be needed.

Tools of the Trade – Don’t Leave Home Without Them

Originally published on March 17, 2010.

I am not a big fan of purple teeth.  But it’s a hazard of the business.  So rather than wander the streets looking like someone badly in need of a dental hygienist, I wander the streets with a kid-sized toothbrush and a little tube of toothpaste.  Sure, SpongeBob Squarepants and Lightening McQueen may not be the height of toothbrush chic (unless you’re under five,) but they fit in a zip lock bag and tuck away in my purse.  SpongeBob trumps purple teeth any day.

Radio Silence at Tax Time

Originally published on March 13, 2010.

Corporate taxes are due on Monday. I have my extensions in place (or rather, my accountant has my extensions in place.) So that gives me (or rather, my accountant) until September or December to actually get the forms completed. But alas, I still need to get everything to my accountant so he can sort out the personal taxes due next month. So I’m not writing about the latest round of trade tastings. or about my new stash of Puffeney, or another round of That Customer (the looking-for-a-clairvoyant-shopkeeper post is on deck.) No, instead I’m observing a period of radio silence as I sort out a year’s worth of receipts, invoices and credit card statement reconciliations.

I know, I know. I should be doing this on a quarterly basis. But that just didn’t happen last year. But this year, it will happen! Quarterly! Maybe even monthly!

But for now….back to radio silence.

Greek Week!

Originally published on March 7, 2010.

Alright, it wasn’t really a week. It was just an evening. But it was a fine way to spend an evening. The wines were showing nicely, customers were chatting and tasting, Greek dips and flatbread were on hand and Demis Roussos and several mixes of “Never on a Sunday” were on the stereo. Winemaker Theodore Vatistas and sidekick Connor were in great form, pouring and talking and explaining how to pronounce grape names like Agiorgitko. (Which sounds sort of like “are you good to go.” But it’s really “are-yo-ghee-tee go.” Got that?)

Last night’s choices:

Vatistas Kidonista (Peloponnese): Kidonista is a very old, very obscure grape. The Vatistas Kidonista is the only bottling that makes it beyond the Greek borders. It’s a delicate white, floral, silky, and was very tasty with the garlicy potato dip was had on hand. I haven’t had a lot of quince in my life, but if I had, I would probably describe it as tasting a bit like quince because “kidon” is the Greek name for that fruit.

Vatistas Cabernet/Agiorgitko (Peloponnese): A 50/50 blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Agiorgitiko that makes for a great intro to Greek wine. Customers are comforted by the familiar “Cabernet” on the label, even if it is paired with the unfamiliar (and unpronounceable) Agiorgitiko. Vatistas tends to shy away from using international grapes (and even in this 50/50 blend, the Agiorgitiko really shines through,) but this “something old/something new” trick really works well here.

Kappa Klima Xynomavro (Macedonia): Another local grape from the Kappa winery, located much further north than the Vatistas property. The Xynomavro grape is possibly related to the Nebbiolo grape and has a similar tannic structure – firm and fine without being heavy. It’s pretty and slightly floral and gives off the impression of being lighter than the Vastistas Cab/Agiorgitko, even if technically, the tannins are probably higher.

Ageri Assyrtiko/Athiri Semi-Dry White (Santorini): Very slightly sweet, with the sweetness balanced by a racy acidity and surprising minerality. It was fun to have a sweet wine and a dry, but floral wine on the same table. Many customers consider all floral wines to be sweet but in the technical wine-geek sense, that doesn’t have to be the case. So if someone thought the Kidonista was sweet, we could pour some of the Ageri and they could immediately taste the difference between floral/dry and floral/slightly sweet.

Everyone who tried liked at least one bottle. And many actually bought that bottle. Or several bottles. So a good time was had by all – including the cash register!

The Winemakers are Coming! Again…

Originally published on March 4, 2010.

First – long time no post. Loooooooooooong time! But I’ll just blame vacation schedules, sick me, sick staff, sick kids, snow storms, too many distributor reps and call it a day.

Moving on….

The Winemakers are Coming!

I have two lined up for March. The last winemaker visit, back in October, was a big success. We hosted Emil den Dulk from De Toren Cellar and my fear of a store filled with nothing but chirping crickets was unfounded. There were plenty of customers tasting and talking, asking questions and even buying (I like buying.) Emil was very impressed with the turn out, saying it was probably the best in-store tasting he had done. Happy winemaker, happy customers, happy cash register…not much more to want.

So I’ll be letting more winemakers stand behind the big white tasting counter.

Tomorrow, we’re hosting Theodore Vatistas from Vatistas Vineyards in Greece. He’ll be pouring a red and a white, both made from obscure, local grape varieties. Greece has quite a few obscure, local grape varieties but Vastistas has identified some that are especially unique. Like Kidonista, which is rumored to bloom twice during the growing season (and makes for a delicate, subtly aromatic white.) We’ll be tasting it tomorrow and learning if it really does bloom twice a season. And if so, why? And how do you actually pronounce “Agiorgitko?” And “Xynomavro?” And “Assyrtiko?”

Answers to these questions and many more will be found at Frankly Wines.

The End of an Era

Originally published on January 22, 2010.

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: This is the wine that ten years later would show up on the shelves at Copake Wine Works. Even though we had room, we didn’t need to take in an 11 case drop, so we didn’t need to use it as furniture, which is pretty much what happened at Frankly Wines. I remember at one point, we actually would use the cases as a table/tasting bar. When your shop is 300 square feet and you want all of a certain wine, you do what must be done!

This is a sad day. The last 11 cases and 7 bottles of the J. Mourat Collection Blanc arrived at Frankly Wines this afternoon. These are the last cases available in the State of New York. The importer who brought this wine over from France is no longer importing. Maybe a casualty of the economy, or maybe just proof that living the dream isn’t as dreamy as it looks.

In any case, the license has been sold or transferred and I’ve gradually been buying up the remaining stock of this wine.

When I first brought it in, it was a great bottle of $13.99 Loire Valley wine. 50% Chenin Blanc, 50% Chardonnay. Crisp acidity nicely balanced by some crunchy pear fruit. It was the text-book definition of really good house white. Good with food. Nice on its own. Broadly appealing without being dull. And the bottle was cute, too.

It still is all that. But now, it costs $9.99/bottle.

Sometimes there are upsides to a down economy.

Signs I’m Not a Corporation

Originally published on January 20, 2010

Alright, technically I am a corporation. A Subchapter S-Corp which means various accounting and shareholder related things. What it doesn’t mean is that I have a big, fat corporate expense account. Or any sort of expense account. It also means I don’t have an IT department (unless you count my husband.)

So I am technically a corporation, but not in the “Corporate” sense of the word.

Case in point – my computer, pictured below.

A few important things to note:

  1. It’s a Toshiba. Not a cute little Mac. This is because everything we have at home is PC-based. And my non-IT-Department husband threatened to bill me for any time spent dealing with Mac-PC compatibility issues. So I have decided that, yes, I am a PC person.
  2. I’m missing four keys. (Can you spot them? The answer’s at the bottom of the page.) This is because during the last two and a half years, wine store dust and crumbs (because yes, I eat over my computer) have colonized under the keys. So I have become an expert at popping them off and cleaning out the gunk. However, I’m not such an expert at popping them back on. But never fear, they still work. A little squishy, but they work.
  3. The left mouse button is more than a little worn. In shiny Mac land, this would be annoying. In grey-PC-missing-four-keys land, this is barely worth mentioning.
  4. You can’t see it, but the power cord is plugged in. It’s always plugged in. Because without electricity, my computer has about two minutes of battery life. This means I always have to be within two feet of a live outlet or I can’t get any work done. You think it’s difficult to find free wi-fi? Just try to find free wi-fi and a live outlet. (I know where this magical combination exists, but I’m not telling.) 

So. Why don’t I just buy a new computer to replace this craptop? Simple. Because I would have to pay for it. Myself.

And like I said. I’m not a Corporation.

Answer: Missing keys are X, F7, up arrow, left arrow

Some Things I Actually Don’t Have…

Originally published on January 13, 2010.

Sometimes the New York Times features wines and regions that I actually don’t sell. Like Eric Asimov’s most recent column on Spätburgunder, Pinot Noir as it’s known in Germany name. The column highlights the difficulty of finding these wines for sale here in the US. I would concur. I don’t even sell one – and I like to think I sell one of everything.

Now Spatburgunder is on my list of “wines I’d like to sell” (a.k.a. the grid) but I haven’t yet found one to put on the shelf – at least at a price I thought I could comfortably sell it. This thought is echoed in the accompanying blog piece.

Well really, I’m echoing quotes from the blog….it’s odd to be behind the curve on something!