Notes from the Future – Page 3

Thanksgiving Day Suggestion #1: For Those Who Really Trust Us

Originally published November 13, 2010.

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Cue up the old lady crying into the wind. Other oldish-timers will look at the price below and start to scream as well. Lopez de Heredia Rosado was never meant to be a cult wine. At a long ago breakfast-tasting (yes, breakfast tasting,) Maria José López de Heredia told those of us there that this wine was something made just for the local people. It was something they liked to drink that was never really meant to be sold outside the town. If my numbers hold, I think the number of cases was something like 200. But it was sold out of town, and a handful of account fell in love with it, including mine. We would buy it five cases at a time. On deal pricing. Yes, long ago thre was a FIVE CASE PRICE on Lopez de Heredia Rosado. These days, you’re lucky if you can get FIVE BOTTLES!!!! Because if you do the math, even if every bottle of those 200 cases were sent to the USA (which they were not), it doesn’t take long before all those bottles are sold – with or without a five case deal. And this was a very long-aged wine…. so as I noted below, one year we were selling the 1997, the next year, the 1998. Then the 2000. And in 2010, this was probably around the time of that breakfast tasting with Maria José, when she quietly dropped the new that there would be no more rosado for many years, because they needed to let what they had age as the previous vintages had. (I think they “many” was seven, but I would need to check my notes.) So there was a very long period of no rosado to be had. When it eventually returned to the market, it had acquired the status of myth among a new crop of buyers It had also acquired a very new price – it now lists at most shops for over $100 per bottle. I don’t begrudge that price – this is truly a small production wine that requires a very long period of aging – and I think/hope that the winery is seeing as much of this price increase as the distributors and the retailers. There are many wines out there that cost as much or more and offer much less in terms of rarity and the time-value-of-money. But I do feel a bit of resigned nostalgia. Nostalgia for the ability to buy as much as I wanted whenever I wanted. And of course, for the price. But it was more than that – that general accessibility allowed the handful of buyers that fell in love with the wine to run with it for a bit, to make a market in it, to introduce it to would-be fans in our own communities. That was simply put, so very much fun. At the higher price – and given that each shop or account gets something like three bottles… you already have to be in the know if you ever want to drink it. And that’s a bit of a bummer. And with that… the old lady crying into the wind is heading off to get her coffee.

I write this post every year. Well, to be completely frank (ha ha), I just cut and paste this post every year. Which I’ll do again, with a few notes about how this vintage differs from the last. So go ahead and read below…or be truly trusting and just click right through the Frankly Wines store. Lopez de Heredia Tondonia Rosado Gran Reserva 2000 (Rioja, Spain)

This post is a re-run. But I thought it was pretty perfect when I wrote it last year (and the year before that). And I still think it’s pretty perfect. The wine in question is the Lopez de Heredia Rosado. Two years ago the 1997 was in stock. Last year it was the 1998. And this year, it’s the 2000, which I find to have more of the mineral notes of the 1997 than the rounder, more tropical fruit of the 1998. But even at its fruitiest, this is not a fruity wine, which is unexpected for a rose. Unexpected enough that we stuck a warning label on the wine. But if you trust my pairing recommendations – and you’re up for a little adventure – a little Lopez Rosado could be just the thing to perk up your Thanksgiving spread.

Here’s the scoop:

Imagine Thanksgiving dinner (the food, not your crazy uncle or your tispy cousin-three-times-removed.) The cranberry sauce, the turkey, the yams, the turkey, the stuffing, the turkey. It’s a wine-pairing nightmare. But this is the wine that can handle it all. Delicate enough to handle the turkey (which let’s face it, is pretty bland), a little fruit to deal with the cranberries and exotic enough to stand up to the stuffing, yams, and even pumpkin pie. It’s perfect.

But it’s not exactly your typical rosé – it has some of the tangy-ness you’ll find in a good fino sherry, only a hint of fruit, and lovely exotic spices like cardamom and ginger. So if you’re intrigued and looking for a little adventure, track down a bottle and include it in your turkey day wine spread. You should be able to find it for under $30 which may be a lot for a typical rosé, but not this rosé.

Price: $23.99

A Wine Store Owner REALLY Looks at 40

Originally published on October 7, 2010.

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: This turned out to be a very good party. We wound up having it at the apartment, and as the night went on, we wound up on the roof. We needed ore wine so I told a couple friends they could go bring up anything they wanted from the wine fridge. “Anything?” they asked. I did a quick mental inventory and said sure, anything. Of course they came back with the one bottle I had forgotten about: Krug Clos du Mesnil. Yeah, no. Not that one. So they went back down and resurfaced with the bottle I had expected them to come up with: Krug 1996. And it was good. I’m now 50 and still haven’t opened that bottle of Clos du Mesnil. Soon. Soon. Certainly before I hit 60!

A couple of years ago I wrote a post about helping a customer select a birthday gift for a friend turning 40. At that point, the store had been open for less than 6 months, I was less than two months away from popping out my third kiddo, and the big 4-0 seemed a very, very long way away.

And now it’s less than two weeks away. (I actually had to check the calendar to confirm that small detail.)

But while I may not be diligently counting down the days to the milestone day, I have been diligently collecting the wines. I’ve scrounged up several bottles of things from 1970, my birth year. I have the good fortune of being born in a decent year for old wines, so I’m not related to the Port bin for birth year wines.

On tap from 1970:

Lopez de Heredia Tondonia and Bosconia
Carema Produttori
Cappellano
Chateau d’Yquem

I’ve also picked up some other milestone wines over the years – 1989s for high school graduation, 1993 for college. I love old wines, not just because I love the taste, but because I love pausing to remember what was happening in my life – or the world in general – when the grapes were being picked.

It’s time in a bottle in the most literal sense.

From the Frankly Wines Shelf Talker Files

Originally published on September 18, 2010.

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Wine puns, they never get old.

OK, they’re not really shelf talkers (those actually attach to the shelf.) They’re more like neckers, which slide on the neck of the bottle. Except my neckers are actually price tags with just enough room to scribble a tiny little tasting note.

Or a warning.
Or a pairing suggestion.
Or sometimes just a piece of near total nonsense.

The latter would be the case for the tag we’re putting on the Les Clos De Tue-Boeuf “La Butte” Gamay 2009 tomorrow. Now this is very tasty wine. It’s made by Theirry Puzelat, generally considered to the man among the too-cool-for-school natural wine kids. Maybe because I get a little annoyed by the whole too-cool-for-school thing (perhaps because I haven’t been in school for a very, very long time), I haven’t spent much time with the Puzelat wines. And these are wines that you really do need to spend time with – to try them at a trade tasting really doesn’t do them justice. They’re not stand-and-spit types of wines. They need a little thought.

But a little while back, I was at Ten Bells, bastion of vin natural, and decided to order a bottle of La Butte. And it was so crazy good that I spent most of the night ignoring my husband and friends while trying to keep the bottle very close to my glass. It was just bright and good and fruity and slightly funky and everything that is best about natural wines.

So I went and ordered a bunch for the store. Because that’s what you do when you own a store and spend the evening with a wine that you really, really enjoy. Especially when you can sell if for less the $15.

But…I was talking about shelf talkers.

So here’s the shelf talker soon appearing on this wine….because potty humor never goes out of style:

La Butte…kicks ass.
La Butte…is the shit.
La Butte……we’ll stop now.

Much, MUCH more useful (and entertaining?) than a corporate shelf talker with a numerical rating!

What Passes for Exercise in the Wine World

Originally published on June 20, 2010.

OK, not really. Some people exercise very hard and very often. I’m not one of them. But if I did, this is what I would be doing. If anyone knows of Pilates instructor offering this type of class, please let me know!

The cartoon is from Harold’s Planet, where you can sign up for a daily cartoon to give you a little comic relief from your usual daily feed drudgery.

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: We’re no longer in the wild days of old school blogging, where we just posted images willy-nilly without regard for copyright. So if you want to see it (and you do), go here.

Frankly Wines Frequently Asked Questions

Originally published on June 19, 2010.

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Most of this still holds true up in Copake-land. Except for the delivery bit. That’s a whole different story up there!

Certain questions come up over and over. Questions that actually have to do with wine (vs. questions about corks, parking, and how to get to the World Trade Center site.) So we put together little cards that answer those FAQs. Below, you’ll find the official answer and the behind the scenes answers (available on this blog only.)

Question: Do you deliver?

The Official Answer: Why yes, we do! And if you’re below Canal Street, it’s free and there’s no minimum order. Otherwise, there’s a minimum or a delivery fee.

The Behind the Scenes Answer: Yes, we’ll deliver one bottle. And yes, we’ll even deliver it across the highway. But we’re not set up like a restaurant, with bike-loads of delivery people on call, so it might take a while. This will be true whether you want one $10 bottle or a case of high end Champagne*. So yes, we’ll get it to you. And we’ll let you know when we can realistically get it to you. But that answer won’t always be “in 10 minutes.” And sometimes, like when you call 5 minutes before close and want one bottle delivered 10 blocks up and 5 blocks over, that answer may actually be no. (Well, the answer would really be “we can get it to you tomorrow,” but that’s probably still not the answer you’re hoping for.)

*To be completely honest, if you order a case of Champagne and we’re working solo, we’ll probably buck up and call in a delivery service. For single bottles, this probably isn’t a mathematically feasible option.

Question: Do you offer case discounts?

The Official Answer: Why yes, we do! 10% off mixed or full cases.

The Behind the Scenes Answer: Yes, I’m perfectly aware that such-and-such a store offers a 20%, or even a 25% discount on cases. But I’m also very well-versed in New York wine store math and if someone is regularly offering a case discount that deep….well….it’s more than a little possible their regular mark-up is a tad too high.

Question: Do you have Champagne?

The Official Answer: Why yes, we do!

The Behind the Scenes Answer: It always amazes me that customers ask this – that they don’t automatically assume that a wine store will have anything sparkling on the shelves. This is a problem for Champagne in particular and sparkling wine in general – that so many customers think of it as something so far removed from wine (and “wine occasions” to get all marketing-speak on you) that they don’t even expect a wine store to carry it.

Question: Can you keep track of my purchases?

The Official Answer: We try to, but we’re admittedly not very good at it.

The Behind the Scenes Answer: We’d really like to be better at this but simply put, it is a pain in the ass using an off-the-rack Microsoft Point of Sale system. First we need to get you in the system. And it’s tough to do this without raising the fear of spam in most people. Then once you’re in there, we have to remember to ask you if you’re in the system. And then even though you just told us you think you are, we have to remember to add you to the transaction. And if we don’t, we have to manually add what you just bought in the “notes” field because there’s no way to add you to a transaction after the fact. And if you order on-line or call in an order, that’s a totally different system and we have to track it manually anyway. And that system can securely store your credit card info. But only if you reorder within 3 months. Which is a pain, but it keeps your credit card info secure in a way that storing it forever on an index card can’t. So that’s a good thing, really.

Anyhow, we’ll get better at it. And eventually, we’ll cough up the really big, huge bucks for some sort of fully integrated system. Until then, if you want us to track your purchases, just let us know and we’ll do the best we can.

And Now a Pause for a Cartoon Break…

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Back in the day, we could just plop in pictures from anywhere into our blog posts. In the many years that have followed, we’ve learned that we should be concerned about copywrite rules and proper payment for content creators – even, or especially, those on the internet. So rather than plop in the picture, go have a look at their wine cartoons – and if you like them, buy them!

I can’t find the cartoon I posted back in 2010 on their site. It’s a little different than the How to Appreciate Wine version that I liked below. What I had originally posted was How to Truly Appreciate Wine. And it went like this:

Attend a history of wine lecture: MAYBE
Attend a wine tasting course: MAYBE
Read literature on the subject: MAYBE
Watch documentaries on the subject: MAYBE
Buy a bottle and drink it with someone nice: DEFINATELY

True then. Still true today.

Originally posted on May 28, 2010.

I subscribe to a lot of daily email lists, all somewhat related to wine, wine/press, food, and restaurants: HARO, Urban Daddy, Thrillest, FoodEatDrink, Tasting Table, Buffalo Trace, winejobs, decanter, Garagiste and who knows how many retail store sites. My in-box (well, honestly, my trash box) is filled enough wine/food industry news to fill a cable network.
But I also subscribe to Harold’s Planet which publishes a daily carton about a blobby little guy named….you guessed it….Harold. Some of his thoughts/adventures are really funny, some are a little weird, and occasionally, like today, they’re about wine and absolutely, 100% spot-on.

What to Drink on a Holiday Weekend: Suggestion #2 – POP TOPS!

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Oh how I loved that Bornard Poulsard. Some day, when I’m feeling sentimental, I’ll write an entire post about it filled with all sorts of (literally) explosive stories about it!

Originally published on May 26, 2010.

Pop tops. Beer caps. Bottle caps. Whatever you want to call them…(try “crown cap” or “crown seal” if you want to seem really technologically fancy)…they’re popping up more and more often beyond the realm of beer bottles and old school Coca Cola. You’ll increasingly see them topping off bottles of…gasp…wine! Yes, wine!

Here are several reasons you shouldn’t be turning up your nose:

1. You don’t need a corkscrew to open them. And really, who wants to deal with a corkscrew when it’s 92 degrees out and the humidity is at 80%. In a pinch, you can just use your teeth.

2. Even uber-pricey bottles like Cristal and Krug spend a good portion of their life under crown cap before getting dosaged and gussied up with a fancy cork. If it’s good enough for these “luxury bottlings,” surely it’s good enough for your roof top wine.

3. Perhaps most importantly, you’ll miss out on some of the coolest, freshest, most summer-appropriate wines on the shelf.

Frankly Wines currently has at least 4 different wines in stock bottled under crown cap. We probably have 5, but one of those is our last bottle of Rene Mosse’s Moussamoussettes and we’re not letting anyone buy it so it doesn’t count. But we are willing to sell the other four:

Hofer Gruner Veltliner 1 Liter Jug (Niederosterreich, Austria):$11.99
Hofer Zweigelt 1 Liter Jug (Niederosterreich, Austria):$11.99

These jugs of Austrian happiness are becoming a summertime fixture in wine shops across the city. Customers pick up one on a whim (or because we twist their arm) and almost always come back for more. Usually several more.

The Gruner is crisp and clean with a hint of citrus and a zip of minerality that make them perfect for summertime guzzling. If you’re in a Pinot Grigio rut and looking for something a little different, this is one to try.

The Zweigelt is a light, fresh, summertime version of the grape. OK, OK…if you haven’t had a “regular” Zweigelt before, that’s not terribly helpful. Regular Zweiglt, at least the style I stock, is medium-bodied with bright red berry fruits and a kick of black pepper on the finish. This version keeps the bright, fresh berry notes but with a lighter body and a hint of white pepper (for those who are intimate with their spice rack, there is a difference. The jugs are best served with slightly chilled – not ice cold, just a bit of a shiver.

Malvasia Dolce Frissante 2007
(Emilia Romagna, Italy):$20.99
Let’s say you can’t decide between wine and beer. This would be your option. It has a crown cap and the foamy, frothy head of a beer. It even sort of looks like a beer in the glass. It tastes like a cross between a wheat beer and a cream soda. That may not sound appealing, but paired with some cured meats, or just a tall glass and a roof deck, it’s pretty darn good.

Philippe Bornard Tant Mieux Rose (Arbois, France):$23.99
There are very few wines that combine sheer drinkability (Sparkling! Pink!) with utter wine geekery (Poulsard! Jura!) This wine does just that. And it features a cute little fox on the label as an added bonus. It’s a little sweet, but that sweetness is balanced by the bubbles, the acidity, and the underlying earthiness that’s a trademark of the Poulsard grape. Pop one open and you’ll be the hit of the party.

Thirsty? Just pop in and ask for something with a pop top, or be lazy and order at the Frankly Wines on-line store. That’s what it’s there for.

Go Big Red! A Slight Diversion into March Madness

Originally published on March 22, 2010.

I don’t usually pay much attention to March basketball fever. But this year, Cornell University* has been advancing. And advancing. And has actually advanced to the Sweet 16. It’s MADNESS!

So to celebrate, from now until the end of the game on Thursday, I’m offering a sweet Sweet 16 deal. 16 bottles of (BIG) RED wine and you’ll get a 16% discount. (And no, they don’t have to be big, full-bodied red. Just red.) I figure it’s only fair since I credit the Cornell Hotel School wine tasting course as my formative wine experience.

Now those of you who actually pay attention to my views on wine store price structure are saying, “hey, you always tell me that if a store has a standing discount of 15%, their margins are probably too high to begin with.” And that’s true. But this is not a standing discount. It’s limited-time-only MADNESS! It disappears as soon as the game is over on Thursday. If the Big Red win, I’ll come up with another discount scheme (maybe 8% off on 8? Or a stupid crazy deal on Finger Lakes Riesling?) But I’ll cross that (suspension) bridge when I come to it.

And to make things more fun, you have to know the secret phrase to get the discount

Which you would know if you subscribed to the Frankly Wines newsletter.

Which you can do right here.

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: That link’s dead, so maybe consider subscribing to the Copake Wine Works newsletter!

If you’re seriously considering taking me up on this offer, come into the store or if you order on-line, type the secret phrase in the comments box when you check out. The regular 10% discount will show up in your shopping cart and we’ll credit the remainging 6% after checkout.

Go BIG RED!

* Guess where I went to school

Thanksgiving Day Suggestion #3: For Those Who Really Trust Us

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Yes, every time I see a bottle of this rosado on this blog, I will do my old person thing and scream at the clouds about how it used to be readily available… like five-cases-at-a-time available. So just deal with it!

Originally published on November 15, 2009.

This post is a re-run. But I thought it was pretty perfect when I wrote it last year. And I still think it’s pretty perfect. The wine in question is the Lopez de Heredia Rosado. Last year, the 1997 was in stock. This year, it’s the 1998, which is a touch rounder, a touch more tropical. But tropical for Lopez isn’t exactly Hawaiian tropics. I say it every time I talk about this wine – the fruit isn’t the primary note, which is unexpected for a rose. Unexpected enough that we stuck a warning label on the wine. But if you trust my pairing recommendations – and you’re up for a little adventure – a little Lopez Rosado could be just the thing to perk up your Thanksgiving spread. On to the re-run:

Three bottles of Lopez de Heredia Rosado against a cork background. With a price tag of 24.99 dollars. Which should make the viewer cry because these days, all you can get is three bottles and they cost closer to $50

Lopez de Heredia Todonia Rosado 1998 (Rioja, Spain)
Imagine Thanksgiving dinner (the food, not your crazy uncle or your tispy cousin-three-times-removed.

The cranberry sauce, the turkey, the yams, the turkey, the stuffing, the turkey. It’s a wine-pairing nightmare. But this is the wine that can handle it all. Delicate enough to handle the turkey (which let’s face it, is pretty bland), a little fruit to deal with the cranberries and exotic enough to stand up to the stuffing, yams, and even pumpkin pie. It’s perfect.

But it’s not exactly your typical rosé – it has some of the tangy-ness you’ll find in a good fino sherry, only a hint of fruit, and lovely exotic spices like cardamom and ginger.

So if you’re intrigued and looking for a little adventure, track down a bottle and include it in your turkey day wine spread. You should be able to find it for under $30 which may be a lot for a typical rosé, but not this rosé.

Things You Need to Know: How to Count Out a Cash Drawer

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: This is easily my single most popular post ever.

Originally published on November 11, 2009.

You may think owning a wine store is about, well, wine. But if you’re a Frankly My Dear reader, you know there’s more to it than that. So in the spirit of giving valuable real-life tips to would-be wine store owners, I’m staring a new recurring feature: Things You Need to Know. In each segment you’ll get step by step instruction on how to do very useful wine store things that have nothing to do with wine.

To start: How to Count Out a Cash Drawer

Imagine. It’s the end of a long day. Lots of wine tasted. Lots of bottles stocked and sold. Lots of time on your feet. And the only thing that stands between you and going home is counting the cash left in the register.

You would think this would be easy. After all, it involves counting and not much more. But you would be wrong. For some reason, this seemingly simple task has the ability to reduce very intelligent people to the brink of tears.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. In my vast experience counting out cash drawers, I’ve developed the most effective, efficient method of doing this. Yes, you’re laughing. But trust me – I’ve probably counted out a lot more registers than you have. So seriously. Just trust me.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Gather writing utensil, paper (maybe something less expensive than a Post-it Note?) and calculator.

2. Down the left side of your paper, write 50/100-, 20-, 10-, 5-, 1-, Q-, D-, N-, P-, Rolls-. Don’t argue. Just do it.

3. Count out the 20-dollar bills (20, 40, 60, 80, 100. 20, 40, 60, 80, 200. 20, 40, 60, 80, 300….etc) and write it down next to the 20- on the paper.

4. Count the 10-dollar bills (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100. 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 200….etc) and write it down next to the 10- on the paper.

5. Count the five-dollar bills (I don’t really need to explain this, do I?) and write it down (next to the 5-… I’m going to spot explaining that as well.)

6. Count the one-dollar bills (Just count them, from 1 to whatever. Don’t make piles. Just count!) And, yes, write it down.

7. Count the quarters – hold them all in one hand. Pick out four with your free hand and put them in the quarter bin. That’s “one.” Pick out four more quarters and put them in the quarter bin. That’s “two.” Repeat, repeat, repeat…etc. And then right it down (next the Q… for… “quarters.”)

8. Count the dimes – hold them all in one hand. Slip them into the dime bin as you count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. Let’s say you wind up with 23 dimes….then you have $2.30. 45 dimes? $4.5. Get it? Write it down.

9. Count the nickels using your nearly perfected hold-in-one-hand technique. As you slip them into the bin, count 5, 10, 15, 20….you know the drill. And…write it down

10. Count the pennies. Just count from 1 to whatever. No hanky panky. No piles. Just count. And….write….it….down!

11. Count the rolls. These are a separate line item. Don’t try to add dime rolls to your dime count. Or penny rolls to the penny count. Just count up all the rolls and write the total down. Don’t trust me on this one? Go ahead. Add your quarter rolls to your quarter count. Then…when you realize that your total is all off because you thought a roll of quarters = $5 and a roll of dimes = $2 and nickels, you totally forgot to add in the nickels…..well, you’ll have to go back out the rolls from your totals. But you won’t remember what to back out because you won’t remember what you thought the rolls were and you’ll just have to recount everything and…..just trust me on this one and TREAT THE ROLLS AS A SEPARATE LINE ITEM!!

12. Add everything up. Write down the total. Add everything up again to double check your total.

13. Run the register report. Notice your cash is $250 short!!!! Panic! Panic! Panic!

14. Realize you forgot to count the big bills….because you didn’t follow Step #2. Count them and add them to the total.

15. Next time, do it my way.

Category: Notes from the Future