We are about to embark on a new decade in the twenty-first century and I am very excited! So much to accomplish in the coming year, including my book I am working on and improving my YouTube Channel. I will include more interviews in the coming year. Patrick, owner of Beso Imports will join me on the show featuring the wines of Mexico. Tim Clark will also make an appearance and we will be talking about his learning curve as a bartender turned wine sales rep. Mike Sharadin is looking forward to making an appearance. Mike owned (owns) Northwest Totem Cellars, a winery that put out some top-notch wines. He now owns a vegan restaurant and wine bar in the heart of Friday Harbor. He is eager to talk about the transition from selling his wine, to having reps try to sell their wines to him. It will be a most interesting interview. There is a lot to look forward to in 2020.
I have selected my winery of the year for 2019, Pomum Cellars-Idilico Wines. Javier Alfonso is both owner and winemaker, and he is putting out some seriously good Washington State juice. I will be featuring his wines throughout the coming year. The Idilico wines are made from only Spanish varietals. The Pomum wines are more traditional Washington wines such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Riesling and Syrah. All his wines are priced fairly and are pretty awesome. Just saying. I will be having him up in July for an event so my local peeps can see what his wines are all about. I will be featuring him on my YouTube channel as well. Check out the article I wrote about Javier and his wineries here.
I also released my “Top Forty Wines Under Twenty Bucks” list on my Blue Collar Wine Guy site. I can’t believe how stingy I was with my grading of wines in 2019. Usually, I have a ton of wines in the B+ to A range, and I have to cut some out in favor of others. Not this time. I had just enough to fill the list out. I even had to watch a lot of my YouTube episodes and take notes to complete the list. My #1 wine hails from northern Italy where I was earlier in the year. I thought that a bit ironic. We have already sold out of the first batch I brought into the store, and I’m hoping to get my hands on more. All of the wines on the list are solid and available, at least for now. Scott, my assistant in the wine department astutely pointed out that the top five are all old world wines. I think that might be a first. Bring on 2020!
Cheers!
Stan The Wine Man
