Terry is here pouring his wines. He always seems to wind up pouring on rainy days and Mondays. Honestly, he usually seems to be pouring on rainy Mondays. And true to form… it’s a rainy Monday. Rainy Mondays aren’t the busiest days for foot traffic, but that’s OK because Terry and I can gossip a bit in between the customer. It also gives me a chance to whip up some fun shelf talkers for his wines. (NOTE: what you see below aren’t really shelf talkers.They’re neckers. But that’s a technicality that only supermarket buyers and POS specialists care about.)
Have a look at my handywork below… and just in case your eyesight isn’t quite so good, I’ve typed out the specifics.)
Aquila del Torre AT Sauvignon Blanc: Italian Sauvignon Blanc… not your usual suspect. Put it under house arrest — your house
Gillia Freisa d’Asti: Like Nebbiolo in a bustier (think Sophia Loren in leather)
Gillia Malvasia: Only mean people don’t like this wine
This post is from the original Frankly Wines newsletter. I think it’s pretty funny, but I’m easy that way. It was inspired by a conversation with one of my sales reps. We were talking about how he was starting to put stuff away for future consumption. I gave him some things to think about, but he was hesitatnt. I told him to just do it, that his future self would thank him. And from that conversation, this post was born. Of course it took me about a month to get around to actually writing it, but that’s life with three kids and a wine shop!
On to the post: A NOTE FROM YOUR FUTURE SELF
(OK, this first part is from me. Your Future Self will chime in later…)
So no matter what you’re drinking right this very minute, if you’re serious about wine (and I mean serious about drinking wine, not about treating it like a trophy and hoarding it away for the benefit of future auction buyers) than do your future self a favor and pick up some Cru Beaujolais now.
Now I’m not talking about Beaujolais Nouveau (which shouldn’t age must past the year it was bottled) – I’m talking about the very good stuff from villages such as Morgon, Brouilly, or Fleurie. These are wines that can be hard to resist straight out of the gate, but really start to show their stuff with a bit of bottle age…. say, about five years… which will be just about the time your Future Self will be craving them.
I could tell you all about these wines. How they manage to combine bright, lip-smacking fruit with sneaky mineral complexity. How they remain one of the wine world’s great values. I could go on about the subtle differences between the various crus. But I don’t need to.. because your Future Self already knows all about them. So don’t listen to me. Listen to… you:
Dear Current Self,
Do me a favor. Buy some of these wines. Even better – buy some in magnum. If you don’t, five years from now, you’ll be wishing you had some, remembering this email and kicking yourself. Or myself. Or ourselves… or…whatever. Just buy the Beaujolais! Seriously, you’ll thank you later.
A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Oh the days when I could buy as much Ledru as I wanted and sell it for $50. I dont’ like to live in the past, but this holiday season had a bit of “glory days” about it. It was so much fun to sell these wines at a price that was wildly affordable for any champagne – especially these. As predicted, the wines blew up, Marie-Noelle retired, and the prices when up – but still not sky-high, not really compared to where they could have gone. One of my favorite memories of this time in the wine world was my Ledru pen. Some tchotchke company had taken the picture below from my web site and put it on a sample pen that they sent me to try to drum up business. It arrived in the mail and I couldn’t stop laughing at the tiny little image of Marie-Noelle Ledru on a cheap ballpoint pen. I wish I still had that pen. I do still have a few bottles of Ledru left. Maybe it’s time to open them.
‘Tis the season to drink Champagne. Is there really any more to say?
(Ok, there is more to say. Like that you shouldn’t wait until the holidays to drink Champagne. You should drink it year round. Whenever you want. And not just for big celebrations. Because champagne is “just” wine with bubbles. And it’s delicious!)
A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: I still post a version of this every year. It’s still true. Most people still reserve Champagne for special occassions, when simply opening a bottle of will make any occassion special.
Now, on to the recommendation.
Marie Noelle Ledru outstanding in her field (photo credit: Bonhomie Wine Imports)
If I could place a bet on which champagne is going to be the hottest thing going in the next couple years, I would bet on the bubbles of Marie Noëlle Ledru.
A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Yeah well, I sure called that one.
This is Grower Champagne produced in the tiniest of quantities. Ledru owns 6 hectares of vines – small enough as it is, but absolutely tiny when you consider she sells off half of that to bigger houses. She farms without chemicals or pesticides, minimizes sulfur additions, hand-disgorges each bottle, and does the riddling on her own.
Yes, all this attention to detail makes for good copy, but the wines speak for themselves. They’re a marvel of ripe fruit, firm minerality, earthy, salty, biscuity goodness. But what’s most amazing is the pricing. This bottle is $50 on the shelf. Certain perfectly-nice-but-but-definitely-not-hand-tended champagnes are pushing this price point.
But that $50 price tag may not last for long. [A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: hahahahahahahahaha. $50 for Ledru!!! I’m literally (like really, literally, actually, crying] As I mentioned, Ledru is poised on the edge of being the next big (well, not really big) thing. The people who talk about such things are quietly buzzing about these wines. Their charm, their deliciousness, their sheer value. The distributor has already removed any quantity deals…because what’s the point of a quantity deal when there’s not much quantity to sell.
So next year, when every single cool kid is going on about Ledru, you can say you drank it when.
Marie Noelle Ledru Grand Cru Ambonnay Brut NV Price: $49.99 Marie Noelle LeDru Grand Cru Ambonnay Brut NV (Magnum) Price: $99.99 Marie Noelle LeDru Grand Cru Brut 2002 Price: $74.99
Arriving soon: Extra Brut, Extra Brut Magnums, Rose
Yes, I clearly have a thing for these wines.
A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: I should have bought more. Way way way more.
We’re now in what I call the silly season, more commonly known as DECEMBER! As my 7 year-old would say, “In my imaginary world, I have a beautiful booklet laying out all my suggested gift options. Would you like one?”
But that’s the imaginary world. In the real world, the autumn decorations are still in the windows, I’m still sorting out my Champagne buy, and there’s no beautiful booklet anywhere in the near future.
But there will be blog posts. And facebook posts. And tweets. So stay tuned.
A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Yeah, there wasn’t much of any of the above. Well, maybe there were tweets, but I’m not going to wade through them. As for blog posts? There were exactly four more before the end of the year.
A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: It’s impossible for me to post about muscat and not make a joke about “muscat love.” This was true back in 2011 and it’s still true now. Except now, in all the social apps, I could actually add the tune Muskrat Love to the posts. Would that have helped me sell those magnums any faster? Doubt it, but I would have bought them anyway!
I have a thing for muscat-based wines….especially dry versions. Or ‘almost’ dry versions. Sales reps know this, so I’m an easy target. I already had signed up for the regular size bottles of this delicious, very-nearly dry Binner muscat, so my former-staffer-now-sales-guy knew I would be a sucker for the big magnum bottles.
Supercool, super-tall magnums.
Biodynamic/little-to-no-manipulation wine-making.
Yummy dry wine with the slightest bit of CO2 prickle….it was a clear case of muscat love-at-first-sight.
Obviously I’m biased, but I do think this wine would be an objectively good match to the Thanksgiving dinner. You could drink it before, during, and after. And never mind the actual wine – the bottle is just damn cool. Be the hit of the party and pick up a big bottle. Or go all Goldilocks and get both small and large….together, they’re just right
Domaine Binner Muscat Ca Gazouille 2008:$29.99 Domaine Binner Muscat Ca Gazouille 2008 Magnum 1.5 Liter:$52.99
A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Once upon a time I might have posted the picture here and just linked to that, but now we know about attribution and commercial licenses and we don’t do that sort of thing! But the picture I would post is a simple illustration of an elephant against a pink background. On its head is a barrel that says ‘vin’ with a spiget dripping red wine into a glass that it’s made with it’s trunk while a cartoon character named Harold does the backstroke in the liquid. This was a Harold’s Planet cartoon – and the illustrators did some of the best wine-related cartoons even. I can’t find the elephant one to link (and as I’m discribing it, I’m realizing that the title doesn’t make all that much sense, because the wine was rouge, not rose) but go here for a quick compilation. You’ve probably seen Yoga for Wine Lovers or Pilates for Wine Lovers in your social feeds at some point over the last however many years. Well – this is the source!
A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Oh I remember those days. One of the huge perks of owning the business is that no one can tell you not to bring your kids to work. The kid in the picture actually drinks wine now. And has a pretty decent palate!
This installment of Things You Need to Know doesn’t really apply to all potential wine store owners. Just the ones that think it would be a good idea to open a wine store six months or so before having a third kid. Because if you, then eventually there will be a day when your manager has the rare weekend off, your newest staffer has a delayed start date due a nasty bronchial infection, your backups all dare to have lives outside of being your backups…and one of your kids will have a birthday party in the wide-open space of a Brooklyn park that guarantees at least one of your other kids will wander off into the Brooklyn wilderness if your husband attempts to take all three of them to the party.
Which is a long way of saying that if you have three kids and a wine store, eventually you’ll wind up with one of them in the shop in need of a couple hours worth of entertainment. They want to have fun. You want to get some work done. But there’s only so much work that can get done when the kiddo can’t even reach the counter.
Here are some tips:
Stock the Bottles Game
Shocking how well this one works. Probably because the kids aren’t usually allowed to touch the bottles. But in this game, not only do they get to touch the bottles…they get to MOVE THEM! To play, each shelf section is assigned a letter (another use for the indispensable Post-It Note.) Then the grown up calls out “yellow tops, Section A” or green tops, Section C,” or whatever. The lucky kiddo gets to PICK UP and MOVE THE BOTTLES from the wherever they’ve been piled to the assigned section. Once all the bottles are lined up, the lucky kiddo gets to yet again, PICK UP THE BOTTLES and HAND THEM to the grown up who puts them on the shelf. And if the kid is very, very lucky, he may even get to PUT BOTTLES ON THE SHEFL ALL BY HIMSELF! (Unless you’re 3 – 7 years old, you probably can’t imagine how exciting this is.)
Make a Display Game
First, you need to explain that a “display” is something you set up to be eye catching so people will stop as they walk by and want to learn more. Then you let the kiddo loose with various, often forbidden goodies, in this case, corks, plastic cups, flower pots (from the actual spring window display, fake autumn leaves, and yes….BOTTLES!
Photo Shoot
Give him the phone. Let him take pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. Delete as needed. (Although some may turn out to be sort of cool, in an abstract impressionist sort of way.)
Last Resort Let Angry Birds and Red Remover get you through the home stretch.
Today, we actually didn’t need to get to the Last Resort phase. The plastic dinos came out of the rolly bag (yes, we packed a rolly bag even through the apartment is right round the corner.) They took over a few wine boxes and the husband and other two kiddos returned just as they were about to annex the Australia section.
A while back, I shared a quick tip on how to remove slow pours from a wine bottles. Or rather, how to remove a slow pour from a wine bottle without breaking a nail or slicing your finger off.
Now if you don’t already know (and haven’t already guessed) what a slow pour is, then here’s the definition: it’s a little plastic device that allows you to pour wine s-l-o-w-l-y. Without looking stingy. Which is especially important at big, fancy tastings where you want to give lots of people a little taste of wine but are too cheap to run through more than a bottle or two.
These are geezers.
So the other day, I’m talking with one of my sales reps to coordinate an upcoming tasting at the store. What time to arrive, which wines, what order – the usual – when he asks if I have any geezers he could borrow. This is a strange question, so I ask for a little clarification.Well, apparently ‘geezers’ are his name for slow pour – which makes perfect sense since geezers stereotypically move more slowly than the average person – especially if that person is a New York City wine sales rep. ‘Geezer’ also implies a certain crankiness, which is usually how the person pouring the wine feels when stuck behind a table dealing with clinkers, anti-spiters, and the general sloppiness that is a big, fancy tasting*
These are also geezers….but you can’t put them in a box.
So we’ve started to call them geezers at the store. It’s especially fun to yell down the basement – “bring me some geezers – they’re in that box under the stairs!” Just as long as no one from the AARP is in ear shot.
*Not to be confused with the good time that is pouring at a cool, little Frankly Wines in-store tasting, where the pourers get to stand in front of the table.
One of my most popular posts ever was a rant on wooden wine boxes. I had a theory that while most people start out thinking these boxes are the coolest things going, the longer you work in retail, the more you grow to loath them.
I arrived at the ‘Utter Contempt’ phase years ago, so these days my enjoyment of wooden boxes is limited to putting them out on the sidewalk and doing a staff poll on how long they’ll stick around. It’s not long – usually under five minutes. Once, we had two boxes sit on the sidewalk for an entire 20 minutes – but that was because monsoon-type wine started to pour the minute we put them outside. The second the rain stoped, the boxes, waterlogged and all, disappeared.
So yes, I am not a big fan of wooden wine boxes….until yesterday. Some of the love came back when I spotted this urban box garden in front of a nearby restaurant. It’s cool enough – and simple enough – that I may go back to keeping the boxes for myself.
Frankly Wines box scavengers, be warned – the glory days may be over!
These are grilled oranges. (Note the lovely charred bits.)
These are oranges on their way to getting grilled.
Now you may be wondering, why exactly am I grilling oranges? (You may also be wondering if that’s a propane tank being used to get those oranges grilled, but I’m not going to answer that one.)
Well, these oranges are being grilled as part of our attempt to make a cocktail, the Negroni Sbagliato, for a recent Thursday Tasting Session featuring Lini Lambrusco. Wait…a cocktail? Isn’t Frankly Wines a wine-only store? An oddity of the New York market that sells wine, wine, and only wine?
We were, but after about three years of selling wine, wine, and only wine, I finally succumbed to the lure of a liquor license. Enough regular customers were coming in and asking if we had any spirits, or liquor, or alcohol (even though wine is alcohol) that it just seemed like the neighborly thing to do. So I submitted the paperwork and the big,fat check (there’s always a big, fat check) and eked out the additional shelf space for an extremely well-edited selection.
One month into it, it seems to be doing the trick. It’s nice to be able to answer the question “do you have any liquor?” with a “why yes, we do” rather than a “no…but there’s a shop over that way that does.” You can only give away so much business before you decide to fix he situation. So the additional business is nice, as is being able to better serve our regulars, but what’s really fun? Cocktails!
Saturdays have been designated as Cocktail Day (haven’t had a chance to come up with a kicky name, so for now, it’s just plain, old Cocktail Day.) Nick, the store manager, takes a walk across the street to the Amish Market, picks a few things off the shelf, and whips up a cocktail. Occasionally, he goes a little crazy and we have to figure out a way to grill oranges on short notice. But when you check out those lovely charred bits and taste the end cocktail, you realize it was all worth it!
