News & Notes

What a weekend for TV! I feel like I watched an entire season of Game of Thrones last night in a single episode, while simultaneously waiting an entire season (and lifetime) for last night's breakthrough in Twin Peaks. Then you had a number of great moments on the VMAs, including quite a powerful one with one of Robert E. Lee's descendents. What was not entertaining, however, was the continuing news coverage coming out of Texas, so hopefully by the end of the day I can whip something together to help. I'm going to dig some interesting bottles out of the bunker and see if we can make something positive happen so we can get a check out to the Red Cross ASAP. We've got a lot of people who read the blog these days, so I think we can be creative here.

Speaking of lots of people, a big thank you to everyone who cleaned us out of the Benriach close out bottles last week. We had a ton of inventory, so to see it disappear that quickly was quite spectacular. It's because of that response that we get offered deals like that, so the more we can prove to the industry we're the best place to bring large volume opportunities, the more we're likely to see. While it's nice to get an email every now and again about my writing, this blog only has the attention of the industry because of the way that it positively affects sales. That's the only way you move the meter in the booze business. You can be the best writer in the world, but if no one actually acts on your advice then no one cares. Not selling something is the easiest thing in the whole world. Paul Giamatti told the world in Sideways that he wasn't drinking any "fucking Merlot" and the entire Merlot industry went into a ten year decline. That's how sensitive the drinking public is to negative recommendations. Telling people what you hate is simple because no one ever gets called on that. It's getting people excited about booze that's difficult because you have to actually advocate and put your reputation on the line. Without an excited and interested core of customers, we wouldn't be able to operate the way we do, so thank you again from the bottom of my heart.

Speaking of being excited, we've got two California-distilled single barrels of rye whiskey coming into stock this week. One from a producer you most definitely know about, the other maybe not so much. As we're getting pickier than ever about what we buy from small "craft" distillers, you can guess that both of these whiskies had to be pretty good in order to convince us to go all the way. I'll have more details about those whiskies as they arrive.

For those of you who are familiar with the Port Askaig label, a privately-bottled Caol Ila expression, it's finally available in the U.S. I've definitely smuggled a bottle or two back in my suitcase over the years, so I'm going to taste the American iteration later today and likely order a few cases into stock. Watch for that.

I have a lot of wine buying and management duties to take care of this week as well, so my ability to update and post may be compromised, so watch the website for more new arrivals or send me an email if you have any questions. I'm going to try and get some charity bottles on the blog later today for the Red Cross, so stay tuned on that front as well.

-David Driscoll