Vague wine requests

Ok, just for fun to start this off: retailers, what is the vaguest wine request you’ve ever been asked to fill?

I had a guy come in here the other day and ask for “I had this California wine a few years ago…it was a mix of two grapes and the name sounded Spanish…do you have that?”

“I had a wine in France. It had a green label. Can you get it?”

Well, can you? [whistle2.gif]

**“I had a wine in France. It had a green label. Can you get it?”[/**quote]

Yea, I see the problem. They didn’t tell you what SHADE of green. Bummer.

But THEN it turns out to be from Spain and the label was red and it was white wine, not red and it was $13.99 not $7.99…

I had a wine in Mexico last week. Do you have it?

…

It was red.

Was it a wine from Mexico? Do you remember the producer?

I had it in Mexico. Last week.

Do you remember the restaurant you had the wine at?

No.

I’m sorry. We don’t have that one.

Do you have the Opus Cabernet Chardonnay ? HUH !

For Roberto:

Guy at work: “The best Chianti I ever had was from California.”

Me: “Really? Which one?”

Him: “Don’t know, but the jug had a little handle for your finger.”

“I had this wine, not sure of where it is from, but it had a bird on the label…”

Cabernet Savenierres

Similarly, I was at a dinner and someone wanted “that Bordeaux that Mondavi makes.”

I am guilty of this. When I was about 22 yrs old, I had dinner at one of the Chez Melange restaurants in the South Bay. I was not a wine drinker yet, but my date ordered a bottle of Merlot that was so smooth, fruity, and innocuous that I loved it. I couldn’t decipher the label, so I went into Bristol Farms, looked through the Merlot section, and scratched my head. Then I asked the wine steward for the “Merlot that comes in the smoky gray glass bottle, instead of these greenish glass ones”.

Not wine related, but a retail sales story… I worked in a large sporting goods store when I was in college, picked-up the phone one day:

Pre-Teen: Do you have decks?

Decks for what?

Pre-Teen: Decks for me.

Yes, but how do you plan to use it?

Pre-Teen: Oh… for a skateboard.

Ah! Please hold… [suicide.gif]

Along these lines I was in our local wine shop the other day browsing for interesting white wines when a woman comes in and says, I had a really good wine from Santa Barbara County the other day. do you have it?

Very patient salesperson says, well they make a lot of wine in SB Cty, do you remember the name of the producer or even the type of wine it was?

She says it was red. He asks if it was a Pinot Noir or Syrah…she says maybe a Cabernet…he says, well they aren’t really known for their Cabs but let me show you the Pinots and Syrah we have from SB and see if you recognize the label.

She looks, doesn’t recognize any and wisely decides to go home and ask whoever poured the wine for her what on earth it was.

For non wine geeks, it’s almost like there is one big producer for each region…just like the questions my fiancee Traci gets at Southwest Airlines…“my friend’s daughter works for “The Airlines”, do you know her?” As if “the airlines” are one big secretive company…and everyone should know everyone else at Airline Inc.

I’m waiting for the customer who finds out I’m a retired cop asking if I know your brother.

I always get people wanting that ‘blue’ bottle of the sweet wine.

sulfite free port

[suicide.gif]

$100 sez that’s the Schmitt-Sohne “Relax” wine.

Casal de Jordoes (sp?) is organic and vegan with no added sulfites, close enough?

I had a good one yesterday: “do you have any Giacosa on your 50% off shelves?”
Hahah, just kidding guys!