Can anyone explain to me why a restaurant would refuse to offer Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay to their customers? A sales rep who calls on me told me about this place. I was stunned that someone who owns a business would actually let their wine snobbery, rob them not only of easy income, but also patrons. Evidently they feel that Cab and Chard are not worthy of their wine list. I sort of get it. As a person who runs a fairly successful wine department, I have many wines on the shelf that I wouldn’t drink myself. I won’t give specific examples of course, but the reason I have them their is for the customers who like those wines. They aren’t poorly made wines per se, I just am not interested in them for drinking. It would be irresponsible of me to take them off the shelf and lose customers because of it. There is some weirdness to this rant that I will get to now.
The said rep who told me this story shared a Cabernet Sauvignon from the Loire Valley in France. The Cab was lean, acidic and green. I don’t know about you, but that’s not what I’m looking for in a Cabernet. Of course, the sales rep loved the wine because as I’ve mentioned before, he is one of the acid/veggie freaks I have to deal with. He told me that the above restaurateurs added this very wine to their list because they liked it so much. Good for them! They are now proud owners of a wine list with one Cab on it that maybe 5% of their customers will like, and I’m being generous with 5%.
I have nothing against liking esoteric wines. I like quite a few myself. If I am craving a green thin style wine, I go for a Cab Franc from the Loire Valley, because that is what they are like on many occasions. I’m a big fan of whites with a ton of crushed or dusty rocks in their flavor profile. Think Sancerre, Muscadet, White Burgundy or Chablis. If I discovered a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with those characteristics I wouldn’t wipe my shelves clean of all the grapefruit bombs and only carry one NZ Sauv Blanc because it has what I like. That would be insane! I’m not a huge fan of the grapefruit driven Sauv Blancs out of NZ. However, I am well aware of their popularity and I provide many choices for my customers who like them. Giving people what they like is a huge responsibility that I take quite seriously. If one chooses to be a wine snob and owns a business that sells wine or runs a wine department, please make yourself a closet wine snob and only reveal yourself to people of like ilk. Your customers will be happy and your wine friends will be happy.
I do have to mention that as soon as I wrote about my new found success uploading my YouTube episodes, I ran into a snag. If you checked out my latest with Owen Thayer, you may have found that all you heard was the soundtrack and the video froze in the beginning. I was so frustrated, I thought about giving up. However, I persisted and found the problem. You can now watch the episode with soundtrack and video in harmony. It still takes time to load them up, but at least it is working. Check out my latest here.
Cheers!
Stan The Wine Man
