That was the headline that came across my computer screen last week, and by the time I read the sub-head and the rest of the article, I thought I must be reverse channeling through its author, Mike Steinberger. The sub-head reads, “Slate’s guide to the importers you can count on.” Forget for a moment the delightful fact that Vine Connections was the only one on the list of the “Wine Importers You Can Trust – Argentina”—I will get back to that.
I have been preaching the gospel of “choose your wine by the importer” for quite some time now. When I had my own retail wine company, Passport Wine Club, back in the 1990’s, I didn’t need to follow this advice myself since I was literally tasting about 3000 wines every year, and had quite a good memory (though my brain is not aging as well as some wines) . I had tasted the wines already, so when I was at a restaurant or in a wine shop, I knew the wines up and down the list and the rows. But that was a while ago, and now I spend most of my time professionally tasting Argentine wine and Japanese sake.
So now I ask myself, “With so many imported wines coming into the U.S., how can I possibly figure out which one to pick?” A wine shop that has 5 different Sancerres can be a nightmare if you know you just want a good Sancerre, IF you don’t have a strategy. Mike hit it on the head—you don’t have to remember thousands of wines, you just have to remember a dozen or so importer names who, if they are doing their jobs correctly, have already filtered out the also-rans and are only bringing in the best stuff. And if they are really spiffy importers, they also have some kind of logo along with their importer name on the back of the bottle. For ours, we have a compass on the back of every bottle of wine or sake that we import—hopefully an icon that sticks with people when they need to “find their way” to great wine or sake in the wine shop. I do the same thing at a restaurant, though this can be a bit trickier. I order the wine and when the waiter brings it to the table, I ask for the bottle, turn it around, and look for the importer name. Hopefully it is one that is on my mental list, and if not, well at least I know I am in uncharted waters before I take the first sip.
Honestly, I don’t know how else one could make an informed choice outside of relying totally on the buyer of the wine shop or the sommelier. I have found that you can have a very high hit rate on buying good wines by focusing on this simple strategy. Every imported wine legally has to have the importer’s name on it—seems like a waste not to use the info to your benefit.
Now to toot our own horn just a bit. When my partner, Nick, and I started Vine Connections, we had the perhaps audacious vision of being “the next Kermit Lynch”, removing the hazy veil that had kept hidden the world’s 5th largest wine-producing country. By working with the top native winemakers and winery owners and clearly and consistently communicating their vision of Argentine winemaking, we figured we could do it. After all, the wines themselves were great. When we started, words like “Torrontes, Bonarda, Malbec” were just words, but through the ceaseless education of the trade and eventually the consumer, we have played some part in putting these delicious wines and this wonderful wine region on the map of U.S. wine lovers.
And to be recognized in the same breathe as some of our industry mentors, icons, and heroes like Kermit Lynch, Becky Wasserman and Terry Theise….well, that is about as happy and proud as two wine guys like us can get.
To read the full article, click here http://www.slate.com/id/2217806/.
Tags: Argentine Wine, Becky Wasserman, Kermit Lynch, Mike Steinberger, Slate, Terry Theise, Vine Connections, Wine Importer
