The guy delivered 2 cases of the Maestri Chianti to me and tells me that he had picked up the cases at 11am and had been on the road everywhere till 4pm. He had driven to Fallbrook where temps go into the 90’s. Bottles were somewhat warm to touch. Opened one immediately, and it tasted ok. Will take a bottle to my local Italian and do a blind test of my bottle and one of theirs to see how they compare.
But he was oblivious to how heat can impact a wine!!! ![[swearing.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/8a0d3f3461d40641d294442fc2be78039bf94d19.gif "[swearing.gif]"){kind=small}
Otto
Most are glorified encyclopedia salesmen.
Dan, I have no doubt that you are right. But when they hire a rep, would it be too much to give them a one day ABC intro to wine. Maybe the sales would go better, in this case a little knowledge would go a long way.
Some wholesalers are great and hire knowledgable people. Most do not.
“Some wholesalers are great and hire knowledgable people.”
After I spend two years training them!
So true. I have two former employees at Michael Skurnik wines and 1 at Douglas Polaner selections right now.
Friendly with all of them still, but frustrating to lose good people. I am sure yours left because they got sick of hearing that Lambrusco is the future of wine.
Your conversation got me to change my title as I also know a rep for a distributor, who has forgotten more than I will ever know about wines. It’s just that this guy knew zero.
I am sorry if I insulted any of the good ones…not fair.
Like we care about who we destroy along the way. Have you seen the Sierra Carche thread?
When do we get to sell encyclopedias? This is awesome!
Dan, I’ve been trying to stay out of that one lately, maybe you’ve notice. However I do have a beef with the retailers regarding that wine. Since it is a $30 and a 96 point rating, was there no curiosity what so ever on the part of the retailers to taste that wine?
Sure I don’t expect you guys to open up a Latour, but a $30 wine, yes I do.
Frankie Solano of Southie was my first “store delivery driver” experience. He was a hard-drinkin’ 5’ 4" paint factory guy with a 4th grade education who could scrap with a man twice his size. Was 20 years sober when I met him in 1991, and he knew that he had to run the AC in the van all the time when it was “wahm” out. All the Beacon Hill customers loved him. Retired to Florida.
Otto,
If I was a retailer who sold that wine, and I tasted it and it sucked, I would have put a disclaimer on my emails, as many clients here have seen me do, something like
“I hated this one, but it got 96 points so have at it.”
If the wine sucks, then go back to the WA and blame them. The retailer is in no way to blame here. In fact, most retailers would be unable to recognize undrinkable wine anyways. And even if they did, the importer and critic are more to blame.
I can tell that we suffered from something similar last year. We bought 2004 or 2005 Craneford Alison Parsons Shiraz on closeout here…$3/btl…sold it for $8, I think. I tasted it after we started delivering it out. Bought 85 cases. I popped a btl and something was wrong. I popped another btl, and something was wrong. I GAVE a btl to the importer, and he said something was wrong. I demanded a refund from the supplier for the remaining 40 cases still in their warehouse for us (bill and hold). Fought for 6 months, they refused to refund me and I was paying storage on it for 6 months. My sales rep offered to pay me in cash for the remianing wine, if I got it delivered to the store. He kept trying to deliver it form the warehouse but it never showed. Finally they agreed to a refund in March, when they realized that after I complained about the wine in October, they sent it to their “expert” in house and he determined that the wine was flawed. They destroyed the wine and never told anyone. Still have not seen the refund. We did a recall on the 40+ cases we had sold about one month after we sold it. Got some back and refunded people. Some people liked the wine and opted to keep it.
Did we go too far? No, we did what we should have done. Should every retailer do this? I do not think so, as presumably we could have just sold it out in one day @ $5/btl and we would have never known there was a problem. Not even sure why I popped 2 btls. ![[bleh.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/c/cbb27a94fa73081862abf910a8bfa05e2ae2f5c3.gif "[bleh.gif]"){kind=small}
Thak you Dan for your reply. This is what I was looking for in the other thread. I have no idea how things work for you guys, and this lights it up for me.
Thanks,
Otto
It is a glorious life…for Max. The rest of us work hard.
Many wine distributor sales persons are simply order-takers. I think I was the most disgusted by a retailer. A “wine buyer” who did not know that Sauvignon Blanc was the grape variety responsible for the white wines of Sancerre.
Bullsh** 
I wish.
Unfortunately, the story is true.
Plus, the person is still employed at the shop.
I meant that Sancerre is Sauvignon Blanc!
For the love of God! This horse has been beaten to freakin’ death. I’ll type slowly…They don’t care! The wholesalers don’t care and the vast majority of producers that have their wines distributed by companies w/out refers don’t care. They don’t care. Period. 
!
They don’t educate their reps b/c the rep would have to ask the question, “If heat is bad for wine why aren’t our trucks air conditioned”.
JD
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. The least knowledge is usually had by your salesperson as they are order takers,some are good though.
Also the hotter the female rep, the worse the wine is.