Yesterday, my friend Crystal and I were discussing when and when not to talk about your own personal taste while selling wine. As anyone who works in sales knows: wine retail isn’t about selling what you like personally.
Actually, lemme rephrase that.
Anyone who works in sales should know that wine retail isn’t about extolling your own personal taste.
Your job is to help the customer find a wine that fits their personal taste. Period. End of story (yet, how often I see people forget).
That being said, sometimes people do ask what you’re drinking at home. If a customer is interested enough to ask, I’m happy to share with them my own personal purchases. And since some of you have asked me via email, I’m going to share this week’s selections here and now. I bought three things this week for the home bar.
First off, the 2018 Hirsch Bohan-Dillon Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir for $39.99.
I didn’t just buy one or two bottles of this, I bought a CASE. Because pound for pound, dollar for dollar, there is no California pinot noir in the store as good as this. In fact, there’s no pinot noir in the store from anywhere as good as this.
I’m a big Burgundy fan and I love cold climate pinot noir in general. But the problem with Burgundy right now is two-fold:
The wine tariffs have added 25% or more to the retail prices.
The recent vintages aren’t all that approachable in their youth.
Because I’m neither a Côte d’Or citizen, nor a wealthy entrepreneur, I don’t have a Burgundy cellar full of perfectly aged Bourgogne Rouge to pull from. I go from bottle to bottle, but lately I’ve been somewhat disappointed with the options. The 2018 Hirsch Bohan-Dillon, on the other hand, is far from a disappointment. It’s for Burgundy drinkers in search of something approachable now, or for California drinkers who enjoy acidity and brightness in their reds. This wine is simply electric on the palate; loaded with cranberry, tart cherry, and spice. I can’t get over how good it is and I’ll never get tired of drinking it.
While the Hirsch is indeed an incredible wine, it’s also $40 a bottle. And while I’m always willing to spend to drink well, I don’t have the funds to crush $40 bottles every night. I need something closer to $20 for Tuesday night takeout. That’s where the 2018 Huards Envol Cheverny Rouge comes in: a 50/50 blend of pinot noir and gamay from the Loire Valley that again gives me everything I want from Burgundy, for a price that I can afford; it just happens to not be from Burgundy.
I know many drinkers who love pinot noir and Burgundy, but for some reason shy away from gamay and its juicier flavor profile. Personally, I love Beaujolais, but I wouldn’t use that as a comparison for the Huards. It’s bright and it has lift, maybe even a bit of carbonic action, but it isn’t Beaujolais in its profile. It’s got too much of that classic cherry flavor that you get in something like Marsannay or even Sancerre Rouge. It’s pure red fruit on the palate, never too earthy or acidic, and it has real body to it. I also bought a case of this because the importer is sold out until February.
On the spirits side, I’ve got so many open bottles right now that my only real purchase this week was for the Nachtmann Punk decanter sets that we have at roughly $100 off the standard retail price. For $59.99 you get one decanter and two glasses, each adorned with Riedel-quality rivets, giving it that studded punk rock edge. These are currently $150 on the Riedel website, so I bought four of them. Two to use now (as pictured above) and two in reserve for when I eventually break the two I have currently in use.
Now I just really wanna stay home and watch The Crown.
-David Driscoll