As many of you know, Anytime Wines was up for a "Maggy" award this year. The Maggies are sponsored by Cary Magazine, and are an opportunity for Caryites (and anyone else with Web access) to vote for their favorite local businesses. Well, somehow Trader Joe's managed to sneak into--and win--"the best place to shop for wine" category. I wish Cary Magazine would allow only locally owned businesses and not chains to compete in these awards, but that's a topic for another blog entry. In the meantime, I've got Trader Joe's and their lousy wine in my crosshairs.
Are there really people out there who honestly believe that the best place to shop for wine in Western Wake is a chain whose best-known wine is nicknamed "Two Buck Chuck"? This is a wine whose reputation is based on its price, not on its quality or drinkability. When people walk out of Trader Joe's with cartloads of Charles Shaw Wine, are they really stopping to think about what they're serving themselves, let alone their guests? Here's a newsflash: producing, bottling, labeling, corking, packing and shipping a bottle of wine costs more than what Trader Joe's sells this dreck for. They're not making money off of Two-Buck Chuck, they're just using it to lure you in. If you look at the rest of their (somewhat paltry) wine selection, they make up for the loss they're taking on the Charles Shaw by overpricing everything else.
Just in case you're curious, here's a link to an online video review of the whole Two-Buck Chuck lineup: http://tv.winelibrary.com/2007/04/10/2-buck-vaynerchuk-episode-212/ It's worth the 20 minutes out of your day for the sheer entertainment value.
There's a big difference between wine that is cheap and wine that is a good value. For some, perhaps Charles Shaw is a great value, but I hope that more of you stop and think about the quality, flavor and price before you make your purchase decision.
Have you tried Two Buck Chuck? Post your own review here...I'm dying to hear all about it.
Jennifer
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Friday, January 4, 2008
New Year....New You...New Wines
My apologies to those of you who've come into the shop and asked why I haven't posted anything on the blog for a while. As you can imagine, the holidays are beyond hectic and busy...sometimes it gets downright chaotic. My New Year's Resolution is to be more diligent about posting my verbal froth on this humble blog spot.
With New Year's resolutions in mind, now is a good time to mention this weekend's tasting of organic wines. For many years organic wines were not very highly regarded; they were wines whose producers were primarily concerned with organic and sustainable farming rather than producing quality wines of expressive depth and character. More recently, however, producers of fine wines around the world have discovered the necessity and usefulness to their land, and to our world as a whole, of organic farming, as well as organic farming's utility in crop quality. By not using synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides, they find that not just the vineyard life is improved but also the land around the vineyard is healthier, and that what surrounds the vineyard is just as important as what's in the vineyard.
Many European vineyards have been practicing organic and sustainable farming before there was any such label, and of course we'll present some examples of fine organic farming in the form of a German Riesling from the Hirschhof winery, a Pinot Bianco from Italian producer Alois Lageder, and a Cotes du Luberon from France. We'll also present two spectacular organic wines from the New World; a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon which received an 88 point review/score from Robert Parker, and the elegant and lush Alma Rosa Pinot Noir from the Santa Rita Hills of California.
Great wines coming from great farming methods. I hope you'll join us.
With New Year's resolutions in mind, now is a good time to mention this weekend's tasting of organic wines. For many years organic wines were not very highly regarded; they were wines whose producers were primarily concerned with organic and sustainable farming rather than producing quality wines of expressive depth and character. More recently, however, producers of fine wines around the world have discovered the necessity and usefulness to their land, and to our world as a whole, of organic farming, as well as organic farming's utility in crop quality. By not using synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides, they find that not just the vineyard life is improved but also the land around the vineyard is healthier, and that what surrounds the vineyard is just as important as what's in the vineyard.
Many European vineyards have been practicing organic and sustainable farming before there was any such label, and of course we'll present some examples of fine organic farming in the form of a German Riesling from the Hirschhof winery, a Pinot Bianco from Italian producer Alois Lageder, and a Cotes du Luberon from France. We'll also present two spectacular organic wines from the New World; a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon which received an 88 point review/score from Robert Parker, and the elegant and lush Alma Rosa Pinot Noir from the Santa Rita Hills of California.
Great wines coming from great farming methods. I hope you'll join us.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)