My New Years resolutions included things like “don’t buy any more wine that you know nothing about just because it might be good an otherwise you will miss out on the next Screaming Eagle.” So what shows up in my email box today? An offer for a new Cali pinot at the bargain price of $85. Kevin Law and Bill Cates, winemaker and consultant, respectively, may be perfectly nice people and the greatest duo to hit the left coast since Mays and McCovey. I don’t know them so I haven’t a clue. But I need an $85 Cali pinot like a loch-in-kop, as my mother always says. And she’s 92 years old with a fondness for Aubert Chardonnay, so she knows her Cali wines.
Not even listed in CT it’s so new. Is blind emailing people who have never heard of you an appropriate wine marketing technique? At least when I was offered MacDonald Cabernet, I was invited to a dinner in NY (Dutch Treat, as they say) to taste the stuff. I even bought it. AND the more important question is . . . who sold them my email address?
Here’s the main body of the email:
"Challen Winery is a small Santa Barbara County producer of premium single vineyard designated Pinot Noirs.
Our grapes are sourced from vineyards of distinction, whose owners share our passion of Pinot Noir, our commitment to quality and our respect for the land.
With Burgundy as our benchmark, we strive to produce world class wines, with every bottle expressing a sense of place, a reflection of the “terrior” [SIC]
unique to each vineyard from which it was born.
“Our wines are expertly crafted by winemaker Kevin Law and wine consultant Bill Cates, the founder of Tantara Winery.
In this pursuit, we take a minimalist approach to the production of our wines.”