I needed to pick up a quick bottle of wine at Publix while visiting family in Jacksonville. Not holding out much hope for the grocery store offerings, I was pleasantly surprised to see a few Siduri pinots for sale. I do not believe these would have been carried prior to the sale to Jackson Family Wines. Nice to have an opportunity to buy a very good pinot among the absolute dreck of the other offerings.
Used to sell Siduri back when and its nice to see them available on the retail shelves at larger grocery chains. Usually AVA blends rather than single vineyard, but nonetheless, usually the best pinot you can find for the price at said stores. Bravo KJ distribution!
Siduri is now carried by my LWS here in nowhere KY!
Multiple brand names have become both available and with visible shelving since being acquired by larger groups.
The wine manager will also tell you it’s often far better to have a major distributor that calls on you at least weekly than some of the obscure ones, the little guys use, that maybe Calls monthly or every other month!
JFW seems to give their winemakers everything they need to not only continue to succeed with the brands they acquire yet not constraining them from independent projects. A very healthy perspective.
Larry, I see them in higher end chains in Southern California often in my travels. Like you, I’d be curious about other their exposure in other states.
I bought Siduri at a big Supermarket in Florida in November 2008, so I suspect selling to Jackson Family wines was not the introduction to that type of retail distribution.
The consumer upside to selling to a larger group is that it gives me an excuse to reduce my mail order purchases by one winery. Bye bye Siduri, Outpost, Schrader, Chas. Smith and a few others. I do not begrudge anyone for selling, but just like they have the right to sell, I have the right to reallocate my purchasing dollars.
I hear ya Jay, and in fact have done similar with my $$. In southern Florida, you could find Siduri in certain markets and Total Wine for at least the past 12 years. However, it has never made it to Jax until now. Whatever the reason, I was happy to have an alternative that is actually drinkable.
Hey Nathan- I am not sure I understand your post, but that could just be that I am slow and from the South. What I do know is that I have been drinking Siduri wines for many years and there was no loss of quality in the bottle that I bought and consumed. It was just nice to have that option.