Matt Kramer’s recent piece on the Wine Spectator site gave me inspiration to sum up a wine shop owner’s job in one sentence. [level-members]
The article, titled The Greatest Gift, is a pretty great gift in itself, not least of which because he quotes one of my favorite jazz musicians, Bill Evans, but it’s this quote that stood out to me:
“Now, I can hear you already: What about that ocean of insipid commercial Chardonnays? What about all those cookie-cutter Cabernets and mundane Merlots? Yes, well what about them? Wine is a business, and you show me any sizable business that isn’t disproportionately plumped with repetitive, unoriginal, uninspired products.”
It stood out to me because, well, that’s your business as a wine shop owner: weeding through the crap to find the gifts.
You can dress it up a lot of different ways, but that’s really what it comes down to.
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