Holidays Come and Gone

For many of us the holidays are a time when more wine is served then any other time of  year. Spending time  with your local wine supplier can be an invaluable investment, it allows you to see what is currently available, make informed choices with the guiding hand of who is hopefully a willing and knowledgeable wine smith. However, I want to share an experience that unfolded not so long ago. I was looking to purchase wine for my guests to be served from Thanksgiving through the New Year celebration of 2013. I decided to check out a very well known establishment here in New Jersey. A store that is known for a sizable inventory of wine. After spending some time wondering through the establishment I asked one of the staff if they could make any recommendations on making selections. What unfolded was 15 -20 minutes of misinformation. The staff member had no idea about wine other than the country from which it was sourced. Anyone can figure out if its from Chili, Argentina, France, Australia etc.. You get the idea. Every single suggestion with the exception of one were $25 bottles and up. The staff member when questioned about the pricing stated. "Everyone should know this...the more expensive the wine the better it tastes!". Well. I guess in conclusion what I should have asked was not. "Can you make any suggestions on making selections" to "Are you knowledgeable about wines? "Can you make suggestions for parring a few wines with the meals I am planning on serving?" It would have saved both of us a great deal of time and aggravation   Lesson learned.. not everyone who works for a store with over 10,000 bottles of wine has any idea of what they are truly talking about.


... Marcus Padulchick