The Business of Tasting Wines

When people first hear that I’m in the wine business, their immediate comment invariably is “oh I’m so jealous you get to taste wine all day.”  And while that’s far from the reality of the retail wine business the truth is that yes, we do get to taste our share of wines.  That can be both a blessing and a burden though; we can’t buy every wine so we always end up making choices. Because the wine laws in our area don’t allow us to negotiate price, quantities or anything else, there’s really only a couple of options in our decision tree. 

It’s not enough to say, “Hey, this wine is good! Send it in.” 

With technology and winemaker options proliferating, it’s tough to make a technically “bad” wine.  

So the first decision we make is whether the wine is worth the price we’d be paying (I’ll save the discussion of the three-tier distribution system for a later post).  Once that hurdle is cleared, the next test is whether there’s a need for it in the store.  This is hugely variable, as the need today for another $11.99 California Chardonnay is much less than a $8.99 Malbec from Argentina.  This balance constantly changes as trends begin and end (goodby Merlot, hello post-"Sideways" Pinot Noir!). 

Really, that’s about it!  One thing that we always try to keep in the forefront of our minds is that even though a wine might not me to our specific style or taste doesn’t mean that the wine isn’t any good.  Personally, I don’t drink big, oaky Chardonnays, but I need to recognize that many people do, and I can tell when one is “worth it” to buy for the store. For this reason we also like to have as many people as possible taste the wines when they’re presented to us—a range of opinions is always respected!

So it’s not super-glamorous, but that’s how wines end up in the store.

Doug is a Certified Wine Specialist with Stew Leonard's Wines of Springfield and also is Director of Operations for Stew Leonard's