Friday, February 13, 2009
The wine business is a business just like any other. Sometimes people are just people, barely meeting the definition of civility towards others in the business. But then there's the winery that rises above the rest, either through their hospitality or their pluck. Let me tell you about two such wineries today - one a well-funded behemoth, the other an under-funded, rising star fueled by a big dream and a lot of talent.
The Big One...
We recently invited Eileen and Jeff over for a special celebration dinner. My wife and I had planned the meal and dug through our cellar to find the right wine for the evening. We knew our friends were big fans of the Rubicon Bordeaux blend from Neibaum Coppola, and we'd been looking for a reason to open our 1994, so we decided that night was the perfect occasion.
Imagine our disappointment when the bottle had a flaw inherent to it manufacture, but which Coppola could not know about until the wine had aged a bit. It was not drinkable.
Now, as a wine merchant, I don't carry a lot of Napa Cabs and am virtually unknown in those parts, I daresay. But I still don't like to approach a winery flashing my industry badge, so to speak, because I'm always curious to see how a winery will react to an unadorned consumer.
So I filled out a form on the Neibaum Coppola website as an anonymous customer using my personal email address. Though the content of my message indicated I was familiar with the problem behind the flaw, and had correctly identified it, I did not indicate my industry association in any way. So when the winery representative replied within a day, pleasantly offering a very amenable resolution to our ruined bottle (replacement with the current vintage), I felt it was worth sharing with you. Kudos to Coppola!
...And The Ant-Sized One
If you've visited this space on a regular basis (thanks Dad!) you may recall past articles featuring our association with the three young guys behind Anthill Farms winery (2007 Harvest photos and article on 2006 harvest.) Anthony, David and Webb are no strangers to our olive orchard in Boonville, which is situated next to a very small vineyard owned by the delightful Donna Abbey and Dan Harris (the best neighbors one could hope for!)
But this week I finally got around to reading Anthill Farm's well-deserved feature story - Making a Mountain Out of [an] Anthill" - that appeared in the wine section of the S.F. Chronicle two weeks ago. It is an inspiring story.
At the opposite end of the spectrum from Coppola, Anthill Farms has yet to pay its partners a dime, and was started a few years ago with less than $10,000. But they can take comfort in the consistency of their short track record - consistently high scores from Burghound and the Chronicle (as well as from yours truly, for what that's worth!)
Though I can't get enough of their wine to include it in a club shipment, you deserve the chance to taste it before it's all gone. You can buy some here.
It was a good week in the wine industry.
Quote of the Day: ~ Yogi Berra (1925-?) Baseball Player, Manager, Hall of Famer, and
delightful mangler of the English Language
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Cheers!
Dave the Wine Merchant
Dave@SidewaysWineClub.com
"These guys are the overwhelming underdogs."
