huevos con vino

I checked today to see when I could expect to receive my bottle of Botella.  It’s somewhere in the vicinity of my office, so I should get it tomorrow.  I hope.  We’ll see.

On an exciting note: It took a while, but Sea Smoke sold all of their Southing.  That means their 2004 vintage is officially sold out!  Wow…they must be happy.  I know I’m happy because I’ve had 2 of their 3 2004 wines, and they were both great.  I look forward to drinking the Ten release.

I know I’ve been harping on Sea Smoke lately, but I like to see a small winery with only 3 Pinot Noirs become this successful.  It makes me think that other wineries with similar styles of sales and winemaking can also be successful.  And I’m all for more wineries that are family-run affairs, such as Fort Ross.  When I signed up for their newsletter, they wrote to me personally to say “welcome” and to ask where I heard about them.  I gave them the link to Wines and Vines where I read about their Pinot Noir.  They were quite appreciative.  The entire exchange just makes me feel good about their winery, and I haven’t even bought anything from them yet!  Very smart on their part.

Josh over at PinotBlogger (who still has my link spelled wrong, but that’s okay because I’m happy to have the link in the first place) lists this concept as a key takeaway from a talk at UC Davis.  “Know your customer and build a real relationship with them.”  I think that’s dead on.  I know I’m a lot more likely to buy wine from a friendly, outgoing winemaker who does things right in the vineyard and in the tasting room.  I’m far less likely to keep buying wine, even if it’s good wine, from a total jerk who acts like his or her wine is superior, worth the extra $50/bottle because of what’s written on the label, etc., etc.  No thanks!

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