A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: 6 cases!!! 6 cases!!! These days, ten years later, we get 6 bottles. And that’s only because I whine and cry and tell sad stories about the days when I used to be able to buy 6 cases at a time. 6 CASES!!!
Originally published on September 12, 2009.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve written about Lopez de Heredia before. Their whites, their reds, their aged wines, their younger wines, their roses. In terms of wines and wineries most mentioned on my site, it’s probably a toss up between Lopez and Chateau Musar. If I could stock the store solely with these wines…and make any sort of a profit….I would do it. If anyone has any thoughts as to how this might be possible, please do let me know.
Anyhow…back to my broken record Lopez tendencies. Today, I’m revisiting the Lopez de Heredia Tondonia Rosado…for the 3rd time on the Frankly My Dear blog. I’m excited about this wine (again) because we just brought in 6 cases of the 1998, which is the newest vintages. It’s a little bit more fruit forward than the 1997. But this doesn’t mean it’s fruity. It’s definitely not fruity – and still requires a warning label because of its distinct non-fruitiness. But compared to last year’s version, it’s a bit more tropical. It’s still a holy trinity of funkiness: Fino Sherry tang, exotic spices, and those subtle, almost ghost-like tropical fruits.
Now 6 cases may seem like a lot for a $25 bottle of non-fruity rose. But the most recent shipment from Spain was only 50 cases. Which isn’t a lot. If 20 accounts take 2 cases each (because there’s a 2 case purchases deal, which most stores will by on) than that only leaves 10 remaining cases for a second round of purchases. And without a good sense of when the next shipment will be arriving (October? November) if I took just 2 little cases, there would be a good chance I would be out of stock And this is one of those wines I HATE being out of stock on.
So I sucked up 6 cases. This decision was based on neither cash flow nor margin considerations (the two main factors driving most of my size-of-buy decisions.) It was simply based on wanting to keep this wine in stock. It’s a decision even my accountant would understand.