Originally published on September 25, 2009.
To be specific, it’s really an Assistant Winemaker/Owner that’s coming. Emil den Dulk, owner of De Toren Cellars, will be traveling all the way from Stellenbosch, South Africa just to pour wine and sign bottles at Frankly Wines on Thursday, October 1st.
O.K. Not really.
Emil will be in New York because Cape Classics, importer of De Toren and a host of other very good South African wines, has a portfolio tasting planned for the following week. But he’s getting in early. And since we love his wines and are always looking for an excuse to pull some corks, he’ll be standing behind the big, white tasting counter from 5.00pm – 7.00pm.
This is the first time we’ve hosted an actual owner/winemaker at the shop. Sure, plenty of them come through during the day with their handlers (a.k.a. sales reps.) They pour their wines and we chat about them, sometimes even buying them….(but never on the spot. Buying great quantities of wine for the store immediatley after drinking….um…tasting it, may be one of the quickest ways to run the business into the ground.) But this will be the first time we actually let a mythical owner/winermaker talk to the customers.
It’s a little nerve wracking really…what if no one comes? What if no one talks to him? What if no one buys the wine? What if he just sits there, at the front of the store, all sad and lonely while we stare at him from behind the counter.
But really, it’s highy unlikely that the shop will be completely empty between 5 and 7 on a Thursday. And it is a wine shop after all…where most people are inclined to talk about wine, try wine, buy wine.
And it’s very good wine: Emil will be pouring both the Merlot-let Z and the Cabernet-led Fusion V. De Toren only bottles these two wines, a level of focus that’s quite rare, especially when it comes to New World wineries, which tend to produce a little bit of everything.
So stop by and meet the man behind a Frankly Wines favorite. Talk, try, and maybe even buy.
A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: I’m not quite sure why it took almost two years to get a winemaker into the shop for an in-store tasting. Not quite sure what took me so long… apparently I really was worried that people wouldn’t show up. But it’s strange to read this because in the years that followed, we would have multiple winemakers pouring during a single week. Or multiple winemakers during a single day! That’s one of the things I miss about not having a high foot traffic city shop – you really didn’t have to worry about people coming to an in-store tasting. Up in the wilds of Copake, it doesn’t quite work that way – the worry is warranted!