Who do you trust? What makes you pull the trigger on wine buys?
Gary Vaynerchuk, Poll, Robert Parker, trust, Wilfred Wong, wine buying habits, Wine Spectator
We’ve been thinking about this a lot. Forget the whole discussion of who’s a critic and who’s not. What matters is who you trust. We all have various methods for making purchases of all sizes, and wine is so subjective, so variable, that a guide you trust in navigating this world is truly invaluable.
We realize that you might have several go-to sources when deciding whether to buy a particular bottle, but for the sake of simplicity, please select the ONE that is most likely to seal the deal in your wine purchases. As always, your participation and comments are much appreciated.
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17 Responses to “Who do you trust? What makes you pull the trigger on wine buys?”
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get your wine on
2008 “Bebame” Red, El Dorado County, California
Cabernet Franc (65%) and Gamay (35%) from - gasp - California! And only 13% ABV, pretty modest by California standards. If I tasted this blind I would probably have said it’s from the Loire Valley. It has pretty much nothing in common with the full bodied iterations of Cab Franc coming out of Napa. Juicy, light, delicious quaffing wine.$18 a bottle
2006 Telegramme Chateauneuf-du-Pape Rouge
Really balanced and smooth, this is a bargain of a Chateauneuf. Yeah, the 07s are lauded but what would I prefer to drink? This! It’s the second label of Vieux Telegraphe, from the same property but from younger vines. And it’s a deal at $33 a bottle.2006 or bust!
NV Barcino Cava: LA Times Wine of the Week!
Delicious and just in time for New Year’s Eve…this is the LA Times Wine of the Week, and we have plenty in stock. Order online, pick-up in-store!$14 a bottle!
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freshly pressed
The Business of Saying No:
No, I am not a natural wine merchant.
And no, I am also not not a natural wine merchant.
So what exactly is my store, Domaine LA? This is a tricky question that I try to answer here.
________
A couple of months back, I participated in the first annual Los Angeles Natural Wine Week, spearheaded by Lou Amdur of Lou Wine Bar. At that time, I took some heat from a few folks around the Internet who felt I might have been merely capitalizing on a trend and didn’t see me as a true natural wine merchant.
The thing is, I’ve never claimed to be a natural wine merchant. When I started my business online a few years ago, I stated plainly that I wanted to sell wines I loved. I was an enthusiast with a fairly receptive, wide-ranging palate, and I considered learning about wine a journey I would be going on alongside my customers. While I’ve since expanded my business to include a brick and mortar space, my self-conception and mission statement haven’t really changed. But my palate has.
To be absolutely blunt about it, I used to love wines that I simply can’t stomach anymore. There are blog posts archived on my website that in retrospect make me cringe, paragraphs singing the praises of some of the most blatantly manipulated wines in the world. I once criticized a wine bar for not having any Southern Hemisphere selections; it’s now my favorite spot in Los Angeles. And today I carry barely a dozen Southern Hemisphere SKUs myself.
By and large, my palate-shift is reflected in what I bring into the store. Chris Ringland and Mollydooker have been replaced by Eric Texier and Thierry Puzelat; the California fruit- and alcohol-bombs, for the most part, have given way to wines from La Clarine Farm, Donkey and Goat and LIOCO.
As a result of my largely obscure inventory, almost every day I’m faced with customers asking for items that I don’t stock. On a regular basis, I hear:
“Do you have Rombauer Chardonnay?”
No, I answer.
“Do you have Caymus?”
Afraid not, I reply.
“What about Blackstone Merlot?”
So sorry, but no.
“Where’s the Veuve Clicquot? This is a gift. I need the recipient to know it’s nice!”
Sigh.
Saying no to people sets up a potentially risky relationship that may start and end with that one exchange—many customers want what they want and aren’t open to alternative suggestions. In other cases, however, that simple “no” can be the beginning of something beautiful, a dialogue that winds up with a customer who came in looking for the Prisoner instead going home with something like Morgan Twain-Peterson’s Bedrock Heirloom Red, a wine which, while perhaps not 100% natural, is a more honest “made in the vineyard” (yes, I know this is also a cliché) version of what the Prisoner purports to be.
Of course, sometimes that customer really just wants the Prisoner. Which leads me to my major confession here: despite more than a bit of ambivalence, I continue to sell the Prisoner, along with other wines that are by no means natural, wines that are quite frankly manufactured. The Prisoner sits on the shelf right next to the Bedrock Heirloom Red, and for the time being, it will stay there. At least twice a week people come in asking specifically for this wine, and, for several reasons, it’s a request I’m not—yet—willing to deny.
Even though I no longer drink the Prisoner, there was a time–not too long ago–when I did so happily. When I first started getting interested in wine, it was a bottle that captured my imagination and helped launch me on the journey I remain committed to today. So maybe I keep the Prisoner around out of a sense of nostalgia. Or maybe I keep it around to remind me how far I’ve come. Maybe I keep it around hoping that for those who ask for it, it will simply be their starting place just as it was mine.
Or, more cynically, maybe I keep it around because people buy it. Maybe it’s a crutch to lean on when I’m too tired to hand-sell the less familiar items on my shelves. Seeing something recognizable is comforting to consumers, and that comfort somehow lends me credibility; credibility is a precedent to trust. Trust is what enables me to recommend something different to a customer who normally drinks the Prisoner.
In this sense, the Prisoner is of great value to me, not just as an easy sell, but even more so as a gateway to all the other wines I have available. I don’t know that I’d be able to move as much of the Bedrock, an unknown wine with a tiny case production, without the Prisoner right next to it.
______
Saying no is extremely hard. Right now, I’m willing to do so 90% of the time, maybe even 95%. Call me a coward or a fake if you want. But I know where I started out, and it’s been a logical evolution. And while I’m headed in a particular direction, guided by my palate, it’s safe to assume I won’t ever be a 100% “natural wine merchant.”
I like to think there’s room for somebody like me—somebody with confidence in her tastes, who also takes into account modes of production in buying decisions; someone who has a particular point of view, yet retains an inclusive attitude. I am strong in my opinions, and enthusiastic in my passions. I never judge my customers, and hope that they’ll be as open-minded and respectful of my offerings as I am of their preferences.
So far, it seems to be working out. In recent months, I’ve brought in only one case of the Prisoner (less than a thousandth of a percent of its total production) for every three cases of the Bedrock (1.3% of its total production).
So, what am I?
I’m not a natural wine merchant. And I’m not not a natural wine merchant.
I’m a work in progress. And I’m okay with that.
The Business of Saying No
Los Angeles Natural Wine Week: Taste California Terroir on 5/15/2010 at Heath Ceramics
Meet the Reps: Amy Atwood
wine jargon
Frizzante
From Wikipedia: Frizzante is an Italian wine term term for semi-sparkling wine (as opposed to Spumante, which is generally used for fully sparkling wines). Frizzante wines generally owe their bubbles to a partial secondary fermentation in tank. You might notice a light fizz or tingly sensation on the tongue with a Frizzante wine, compared to the more carbonated sensation that more fully sparkling wines yield.
Scorekage
Okay, so we made up this word yesterday after a great restaurant experience. We brought a bottle of wine with us, expecting to pay a corkage fee. But the restaurant either forgot to charge us the $15, or decided to be nice to us. We scored! Hence, “scorekage” has entered our lexicon. This can also refer to BYO friendly restaurants that don’t charge for corkage under any circumstances.
grapewise
DomaineLA Store Contact Info
If you’re looking for our brick and mortar shop, here’s where it can be found:
(323) 932-0280
Hours are 11AM to 8PM, Monday through Saturday and noon to 5PM on Sundays.
Read more…Fabulous & Frugal!
Our friends launched a new site and domaine547 is a featured wine columnist in their premiere edition! Go check out Fabulous & Frugal for some fantastic lifestyle tips for living the good life during what, for most of us, is an economically challenging time. There’s much more than wine there, and we’re thrilled to be a small part of the start of what will surely be a successful venture. Congrats to Brandi & Steph for their achievement!
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domaine547 In the Blogosphere! Imbibe Magazine Unfiltered
April 15th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Robert Parker for me. I’ve been following him for years and his palate is more aligned with mine than anyone else. I enjoy what Gary V does, but his palate is so far off from mine that I have to closely pay attention to what he says about a wine to be sure if it is something I might like.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Who do I trust? hmm… I’ll trust anyone once. I don’t put any more weight on one person’s recommendation over another’s except where I know I have liked an individual’s past recommendations. When it comes to Robert Parker, I do use them as a guide in somewhat of an inverse fashion: If RP rated less than 90 then I consider buying, if RP rated 90 or higher I tend to steer clear.
April 15th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Boy how I wish everyone was like Taster B and avoided wines highly rated by Parker! It would surely make the wines I like much easier to find and probably less expensive to boot!
April 15th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
I voted other but it really should be others … first off - Steve Tanzer - followed by MANY Vayniacs, my LWS owner and, of course, myself. I do trust GV but sometimes our pal’s don’t mesh.
April 15th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I can’t cast my vote becuase domaine547 isn’t listed (!?!?
April 15th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
NY Pete, I forgot about Tanzer. Whoops!
Pamela, I lump myself into the Local Wine Store category, even though d547 is virtual. But thanks for your vote of confidence!
Taster B and Winestein, I think you’re a match made in heaven
April 15th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
I would (of course) have to go for the “A friend I trust” but adding also some online “friends”. That means I have to include my real friends but also wine bloggers I trust.
Thankfully now we can easily have access to much bigger number of opinions than ever. We just have to choose who to trust and follow.
April 16th, 2008 at 7:12 am
Great poll. I even wrote a post about my answer: http://indiscriminateideas.blogspot.com/2008/02/three-steps-to-picking-bottle-of-wine.html
April 16th, 2008 at 8:00 am
Jeff, I remember that post and loved it. I should have linked to it here…so sorry!
Andre, thanks for commenting. I think what you guys are doing is really interesting, and seeing as cellartracker gets a high ranking here, I think that bodes well for younger wine communities like Adegga. Can’t wait to see how this all unfolds, but clearly there are changes happening as to how we all get our information and make purchase decisions. Very very interesting!
April 16th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
my school of thought about wine “raters” is similar to Taster B’s in that I trust someone at least once. In starting into my wine geekdom I learned which wine raters palates I most closely resembled and then went from there. There is obviously a difference when Spectator gives a wine a 90+ and Enthusiast gives it a 78. These days I trust my palate, bloggers and the guys at my local wine shop who know what I enjoy most in a wine. I have only had a couple of the wines that Gary V has thought were bomber because some of that juice he pours is pretty pricey and half of ‘em aren’t distributed directly to Virginia and I am usually to cheap to pay for shipping. haha But on the whole our palates seem to match up.
Wow - that was a long answer.
cheers
John
April 16th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Wow, this is pretty shocking, and very intriguing.
With 42 votes in, critics (GV, RP and WS included) are receiving a mere 19% of the votes.
69% go to peer/personal recommendations (LWS included here, with a huge showing by Cellartracker and a good showing for bloggers as well).
12% are uncategorized within the “other” designation.
While this is clearly a poll that is being answered by people already using the interwebs to do wine research (hence, a propensity for cellartracker, bloggers, etc.), it still hints at a larger trend.
April 16th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
I think the advantage to Cellartracker (which I voted for, by the way, no offense!) is that you generally have several opinions on the wine and hopefully from some fairly knowledgeable people (since they were serious enough to start using Cellartracker in the first place). You can get an idea as to the consensus on a wine, much in the same way you can by reading customer reviews on Amazon.com, or computer-related reviews on Newegg. And you can kind of weed out the stupid people in the reviews (like the ones who review a GPS and complain because it told them to turn in the middle of a block into a building and they did so and smashed their car).
April 16th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I’m a CellarTracker and friends/local stores gal myself, although if it’s a really unusual bottle I do occasionally have to resort to WS I will admit. But I tend to gravitate more towards the lower scored wines, like TasterB. It it’s got an 87 in Wine Spectator, I usually like it a lot!
April 16th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
First off, kudos on the Dirty Dancing reference. That just really made my day.
Obviously, I have a biased outlook here - I like my tool
But I will say that I am not surprised that the most votes go to friends, peers and on-line. I think this is true generally, not just a fluke of your reader-traits. Most of my friends do not know much about wine. And almost none of them take the time to read WS or any other review or online blogs. They generally get suggestions from other friends.
And for the big review sources, it is difficult to get a feeling for how your palate matches the reviewer’s palate. Most of the reviews are done by many different people, even within one shop like Spectator or Parker. If you cannot match your palate to theirs, what good is their review in the end?
May 14th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
[…] is. There was overwhelming response to our poll on what you use to guide your wine purchases, with Cellartracker coming in a strong 3rd with 12% of the vote. That leads us to believe that many of you probably enter notes into […]
May 16th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Jill - All the research I’ve done pointed to ‘trusted recommendations’ coming top. Thats usually a friend, but in a lot of cases the guy who runs the local wine store becomes a friend. For those that have developed trust with particular critics that fills that demand, and if someone cant get a recommendation from a trusted source, we found that nothing beat a slew of reviews from “people like me”, which would explain CT’s strong showing
July 12th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Wow, I am very surprised by the number of CellarTracker votes, very exciting to see.
Thanks,
Eric LeVine
-CellarTracker.com