Friday 9 October 2015

Categorising Wine

Another in-store meltdown during a recent visit to Total Wine store here in Atlanta.

I arrived with a defined list of Chilean wines.

Actually before I go too far, you tell me: how do you buy wines? Do you say "I need to replenish my light whites to have with apritivo, so I shall look for some Trentino and Veneto Pinot Grigios and perhaps also a NZ Sauvignon Blanc, plus I'll stock up on full bodied reds, maybe some Italian Primitivo or Nero D-Avola."
Or do you walk in say:
"I need a Pinto Noir, give me any Pinot Noir."

Do you know what I am getting at here?

Wine stores: do not stock your wines by grape. It makes no sense and does not actually help guide a buyer through flavours and aromatic varieties or subtleties.

So I got to spend 35 minutes running between all grape sections and reading every. single. label to find the wines I was after.

It wasn't fun.

On the other hand: the selection is impressive and agreements with numerous wine producers cut out two levels of middle men, providing good wines at good prices.

So giant rant aside, I will probably be back.

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