Empire State of Mind
Another installment of ‘WINNING & Losing’ coming your way, the week before I relo to Manhattan and start an exciting new chapter. Luckily, NYC is the wine capital of the East Coast, so I will certainly have a ton of exciting wine related info to praise and fume about in the very near future. Remember my musings of NYC in the past? If not check out NYC: The lights will inspire you
(Pulitzer worthy stuff!). Until then, enjoy!
WINNING
Torbreck Vintners - When it comes to wineries that know how to capitalize on every market segment, there should be two that come to mind above all others, Torbreck and Penfolds. Both houses produce wines that are of good to mind-blowing quality and range in price from the mid-teens to $500+. While Penfolds enjoys the role of world wine nobility with their Grange, it’s Torbreck’s Laird that is tugging at the wealthiest of purse strings in a more efficient manner. How do they do it? Avoid America. With the vast majority of the sales of Laird avoiding the oversaturated American wine market, they’ve effectively created HUGE demand with very little supply. Thus, they’ve been able to effectively move their entire offering for a whopping 700 American bones a bottle. Good stuff Mr. Powell!
Whole Foods Bar – Love the idea, but will they take my discount card? The ever progressive Whole Foods have decided to launch a series of bars within a select number of their stores. Personally I love the idea, as I hate grocery shopping, yet I love drinking wine. When you add those two variables together, you enhance the grocery shopping experience to the point that men may actually not despise it! Now that’s a good sales idea.
LOSING
Asparagus Wine – Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse than Bully Hill’s ‘Sweet Walter’, Fox Barn Market & Winery has decided to make a wine out of asparagus. Seriously?! Wonder what will smell worse, the wine or your pee after drinking it!
William Koch - The billionaire wine collector who’s looking for heads to roll had a claim struck down by U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones. The claim was denied citing that his loss, caused by purchasing a counterfeit bottle of 1870 Lafite, was caused “not by Christie’s misleading statements, but the plaintiff’s desire to gather evidence against Christie’s.” She further elaborated that “he was acting as an investigator (as opposed to a reasonable customer) who chose to pay $4,200 despite knowledge that the wine was worth far less.” Ouch Bill, that stings. I love your intentions, but your means are certainly questionable.
Massachusetts Consumers – What a blow-out! Massachusetts Consumers 0 – State Government 5,089,254. You all may as well give up trying to get any kind of break when it comes to alcohol or having any kind of semblance of enjoyable living. D-Pat and his regime have struck yet again, this time taking away your right to use your Groupon coupons/gift certs the way you want to. By taking away your ability to use the restaurant vouchers for food AND alcohol (now only allowing them for food), they’ve taken away your freedom of choice. You bought the damn voucher, you should be able to use it for what you want! Seriously, a state government has never had more say in the daily lives of its citizens, yet you keep supporting them so it’s hard to feel bad for you.
