Yesterday I almost lost my chance to buy 3 '05 Giuseppe Rinaldi Barolo Brunate Le-Coste for $125 each because I don’t like to carry btls around the store while I shop. The '05 Rinaldi was my first stop in the door and I quickly learnt that there were just the 3 left I wanted to buy.
Its my habit to scout out all my purchases and when done shopping collect the btls and head to check out. So, knowing these had some potential to disappear while I shopped I tucked them low and deep in the overflow rack near the floor thinking that should be safe for the next 15 minutes, right? In the meantime, I was hovering nearby looking at other Piedmont & Tuscan stuff on sale. I glanced up and some guy is grabbing the remaining $132 2011 Rinadli Tre Tine, also on sale, and I had the sense he might go looking to my '05 Le-Coste stash. So I swooped back quick and grabbed my 3. Since he was right next to me I explained my actions. Thankfully, he got it and thankfully it was obvious I had stashed them. And thankfully, he hadn’t already found them but I could tell he was starting to search for them. And thankfully, I didn’t need to ask him to hand them over but if another minute or two had elapsed my situational ownership claim would have been tenuous . Note to self, even $125 btls have people eager to grab them.
And the idea of hiding bottles is also ridiculous. Retailers put bottles on display for a reason. But I’m sure you always go put them back if you decide not to buy.
Before internet reserves, I knew a person who used to hide library reserve books in the library stacks at college. Yeah, she got her reserve material, but others did not and were SOL.
I think someone used to regularly hide bottles of the relatively allocated bottles of Napa Cabs in a local store. I was looking for a few bottles of something cheap one day and when I pulled them I noticed different color capsules a row or two further back. Someone had stashed a few bottles of Shafer Hillside and Montelena Estate back there. I grabbed a couple, not giving much thought to their misplacement other than amusement at my good luck, never having seen those wines before in that store.
I went back the following year and thinking it was worth a shot, scavenged behind the cheaper wines in that same area, and again found a few cherries. The store had a back room where they kept the highly allocated wines they didn’t put out on the shelf, so I figured some customer (had to be a guy) must be hiding them for future purchase. I took all the Montelena that year, which must have gotten his attention, because I never found them hidden there again.
Chuck, you and I agree to disagree… as usual. One thing is for sure, you have zero reason to speculate I’d leave them where I stuffed them for 15 minutes. I didn’t put them aside to think about buying them, I put them aside to shop for other things on my list so I didn’t need to carry them around with me. I never contemplated not buying them. That was it.
I know, it was a big surprise when I got the sales flyer. My guess is they started them out way too high and got little action then decided to put them out at near cost to clear rack space? my receipt says they were originally $189 which would have been kinda a high for not a critically acclaimed vintage. I just looked at what people were saying recently about the '05 on CT rather then worrying about what the critics said way back in 2009. I love the producer but the pricing has otherwise soared. I paid a lot more for some 2013 Tre tine last year.
yeah I missed the boat on Rinaldi and that is the lowest price I’ve ever seen for one of their barolos. the best price I’ve seen besides this one was something like 150, also for the 05s
Well, normally most would frown on this type of behavior. However, in this circumstance, I think a little leeway is in order. And especially with Rinaldi.
So I hide the remaining 2017 Pax Hillside Syrah behind the Bread and Butter Pinot Noir in case I like it. At $39.99 good price on it and I figure no one will look behind the Bread and Butter.