Wine Tasting - A Tupperware party with PRP Wine International

WINE TALK
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http://prpwine.com/

Interesting business model. Our friends purchased a “home wine tasting” off a flashsite for their fathers birthday and had 9 people over, the cost was $50 and included 9 bottles. It’s basically a direct selling model like a tupperware party (not multi-level marketing though, best I can tell) and the idea being the people will purchase the wines they like. And our “consultant” was a nice guy and fairly entertaining. so overall it could be an interesting and very entertaining model for selling but it would be a better event if there were better wines.

The wine they are pimping is plonk, all “exclusive” to prp and “unable to purchase in retail stores” pricing in the $20 range. Of the wine I had that night, there was a decent chardonnay from Languedoc done in steel but tasted like SB. Seems like prp just buys bulk wine and then makes up fictitious wineries and prints up their own labels, private label gone awry. I don’t think I have a problem with this really, just buyer beware. The one sketchy area was the claim about the wineries being “legit”.

From their website:

Home » About PRP » Visit Our Suppliers Wineries

Learn About Our Suppliers

Ferdinand Pieroth GmbH Winery
Ferdinand Pieroth GmbH - a tradition of wine-growing going back almost 300 years. The company is located at the heart of Germany’s wine-growing regions, with its own exclusive vineyards between Bingen on the Rhine and Burg Layen. It is here that the idea of selling wine direct to customers all over the world was born.

Pieroth Winery in Hungary
Hungary - famous for its wild gypsy music, fiery czardas and gulasch! Ruled over by the Habsburgs from the end of the 17th century until 1918, Hungary is one of the most fertile lands in south eastern Europe. The capital, Budapest, is also known as the ‘Pearl of the Danube’, after the river which flows through the city and southwards down to the Black Sea, dividing the coutry into east and west.

Vicomte Bernard de Romanet Winery
The picturesque village of St Jean d’Ardieres, in the south of the Beaujolais region, is the home of Vicomte Bernard de Romanet. The company specializes in leading Burgundies and Beaujolais wines, as well as fine wines from what are often little-known estates in southern France. These have an enthusiastic following among buyers all over Europe, America and the Far East.

Conté Ottavio Piccolomini Winery
Siena, one of the most beautiful towns in Tuscany, is the home of the Piccolomini family. Many of its members were famous figures; they included two popes, Pius II and Pius III, who changed the face of Italy during the 15th century. Today, our Italian wine company bears the name of another family member, Conte Ottavio Piccolonini d’Aragona. It specializes in leading Tuscan wines such as Brunello di Montaicino, Vernaccia di San Gimignano, and of course the much loved Chianti Classico.

Golden Grape Estate
Golden Grape Estate of California offers wine-lovers in the United States an exciting choice of wines from around the world, but with an emphasis on those from California.

Golden Grape Estate? it’s not in even in California, it’s Australia http://www.goldengrape.com.au/ and it’s basically the same site as prpwine.com, a pimp site the direct selling model.

Well then, what about Vicomte Bernard de Romanet Winery in the picturesque village of St Jean d’Ardieres, in the south of the Beaujolais region? Nope, it’s a UK site pimping the direct selling model… http://www.romanet.co.uk/

same for Pieroth in hungry. http://www.pieroth.com

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I suffered through a Pieroth tasting once (over a decade ago) at a dinner party–the pedantic pompous “expert” was quite irritated that I, the wine lover, didn’t buy cases of his plonk. I remember him describing one wine as “so clean, so fresh,it has no taste, just like water.” I suggested water as a suitable alternative. I did buy one bottle of a TBA which I still have, a bit cloying but decent.

alan

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Funny part of the entire evening was on the car ride over my wife said “let’s set a few grounds rules for you, OK”. Uh… Sure. She replies “good, first rule is you are not allowed to make any comments, corrections, or other remarks that might be viewed as you being a jerk”. What? Who me? I protested and reluctenly agreed.

About halfway through the evening my wife says “how come you’re not talking?” To which I proudly declared “haven’t I been good!”. Well, I guess she wanted me to be a little more interactive.

On queue, the host asked what flavor we found in the cab he just poured and I blurt out “cotton candy” to which half the table proclaimed “oh yeah, I taste cotton candy too!”

I didn’t really need to turn my head to look at my wife, I could feel the cold piercing stare through the side of my head. I was better off not making eye contact. Then I heard the faint tone of disapproval from under her breath “Really? Cotton candy?”. But the damage had been done.

Later, in an attempt to redeem myself, the host heard me talking to my wife about a french rose we like and he shared this jewel. “Rose is the blend of white and red wine” to which I immediatley fired back “thanks, that’s good to know” and then quickly looked to my wife for validation of my good deed to which she just she just shook her head and said “nice try”.

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you are far wiser than I. After our evening, my shin looked like my wife had played a 10 minute drum solo on it. My big mouth didn’t stay shut. Oh, we got the same rosé lesson as you!
alan

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really funny [welldone.gif]

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I too got dragged to one of these about a decade ago. It was put on by my wife’s department head at the time. We were invited, because we were “into wine also”. Most of it was sickly sweet, and the “French Pinot Noir” we had was served ice-cold. We bought a couple of bottles of a dessert style wine that was somewhat drinkable. I didn’t have to be told to be good, since it was my wife’s boss, but I’m actually surprised my wife held her tongue. She still brings up this assault on her taste buds from time to time.

Her boss held these parties about every 6 months or so. Needless to say, we always seemed to have plans during future tastings.

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Well, my wife apparently bought one of these parties at a charity auction and it would appear we will be hosting a tasting with ten friends this weekend. To her credit, she had never heard of this organization before and is a sucker for charity auctions. I have had a bottle from PRP that was given to me as a host gift - and it was not good. Hopefully, they sell wines in the sub-$15 category or I risk really pissing off my wife who would be embarrassed with a zero bottle order as hosts of this thing. I also hope our taste buds aren’t too fried for us to break out some good wine after the salesman leaves as a gesture of goodwill to our poor friends.

Trying to put on my most positive attitude possible, has anyone had anything good from them before? Hoping I will find at least one cellar defender in the lineup.

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I went to one of these at a friend’s place, maybe 25 years ago. I wasn’t as knowledgeable about wine back then, but even so, I remember there only being one wine that I was even tempted to buy. I did buy it - might have been a dessert wine but I don’t really recall, and I don’t think it could have been too expensive. While there was certainly some pressure at the end to buy something, I don’t remember it being a heavy-duty hard sell. I suppose that depends to some extent on who you get as a salesperson.

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Thanks for a good laugh, out loud, even. That was great! [cheers.gif]

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Where do the ‘consultants’ come from?

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We bought a couple of bottles, to be polite. The chardonnay wasn’t too bad. The reds had lots of residual sugar. Perfect wine to take to a large party where you can drop them off on a counter and slip back into the crowd with your beer.

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Best I can tell is they’re probably independant contractors and are spiffed on the wine they sell at the house party.

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I hope to god I never get invited and have to go, as there’s little chance I will hold back.

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Yeah, my tongue will likely be bloody by the end of the party

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this would make a good template for another movie like that Steve Carrell ‘dinner for schmucks’ vehicle.

thanks for the warnings. some civic organizations i’m in try all these kinds of things, and i just usually beg off by offering them filthy lucre, and trying to avoid having them give me anything infectious in return. i failed at xmas time, and my freezer is still full of overpriced charity cookie dough, which my depts secretaries / EAs will no longer accept from me.

[ and i need that freezer space since i’ve found a ranch where i can subscribe to animals (they don’t ship) and you’ll get nice little updates along the way of how nicely they growing. of course, unlike those heartwarming sally struthers commercials, these sponsored animals end up in your freezer, in whatever specified cuts you desire. ]

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Well, have to say the PRP party wasn’t nearly as bad as I had feared. Yes, the wines are generally not what I would buy or choose to drink, but the gal that ran the tasting did a pretty good job of representing what the wines were or weren’t and I did not once feel the need to correct any of her information. Everyone had a good time, all of us tried wines we didn’t typically buy or drink, and the rep was completely low pressure. We only bought half a case of some very affordable Sangiovese, perfect for pulling out on a weeknight, and did so only after having tasted it (which varies from how we typically buy cheaper, or, in some cases, even very expensive wines). Afterwards, we opened the cellar and pulled out some good cabernet and pinot to consume and the party kept rocking until late into the night.

In short, it was a fun event for all, nobody felt like they had been pressured or somehow swindled, and I think most of us even learned something. Definitely not what I am going to use to stock the cellar with, but seen simply as a way to get some friends together and be thoughtful about wine for 90 minutes, it was a fun way to start out a Saturday night.

I am a bit bummed not to have some really awesome quotes to share with the board, however. Probably the funniest quote of the evening was regarding the Trocken, when one of the guys blurted out “this stuff will make your teeth hurt” given the very present residual sugar and copious amount of acidity.

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Awesome thread!

I laughed out loud at Brig’s post, as well!

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Brig, well done. I can see your wife making those faces, too.

No mention of critical scores, which was a relief I am sure. Just think if you had to also sit through the consultant saying, “you’ll really want this one, as “XX” gave this 90 points”.

You’re a better man than me, Brigger. I would have kindly and with as much respect and love as I could muster, would have told my wife to go without me.

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Oh yeah! Another PRP tasting on the resume. This time I knew what to expect. This tasting was a birthday gift for a friend from their children. Asked if we’d take one for the team. Sure, I can do that. The wines were slightly better but priced higher than the last time.

The worse wine wasn’t in CT and I refused to create it. A shiraz, cab, merlot blend from South Africa called Big Feet where elephants are used to crush the grapes. Sweet chocolate and cherry syrup. The residual sugar was off the charts and the host gave fair warning. “This wine is sweet” No shit.



Posted from CellarTracker

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I had always wondered if others shared my view on these PRP events. I’ve been to a few, and I’ve always had the sense that they are targeted at people that don’t really buy a lot of wine and don’t have a great sense of what you can expect a wine to taste like at certain price points. Put another way, I didn’t find the wine to be “bad,” it just drinks like a $10 bottle, not the $25+ they charge for most of their offerings. I think they are hoping that people at these parties will just be like, “I guess this is just what good wine costs…”

I was particularly struck by the sales pitch on the Chevalier, because invariably, the sales rep will suggest that we just call it “Chevy” so we don’t have to deal with the pronunciation. I’ve heard it a few times, and it’s usually been kinda condescending. Setting aside the notion that equating the wine to a pickup truck doesn’t really get me there, it highlights that they are targeting new wine drinkers because the word “Chevalier” isn’t a huge reach for most people that drink a lot of wine and are at least familiar with French wine names.