FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS, AND SPREADING THE GRAPE GOSPEL

Our marketing guys have been working on a web video concept for our stores, featuring myself and my assistant Shannon discussing some of the frequently asked questions we get in our stores in quick little informational snippets, in order to better acclimate current and potential customers with our wine expertise, not just individually, but as a collective staff geared to offer the best customer service in the area. Not sure if the masses want to see Shannon and I do our Jay and Silent Bob impersonation on You Tube, but we’ll give it a go sure enough.

It’s a cool idea. And it makes sense in this, the Information Age.

So it has got me thinking about all of the questions I have gotten over the years, the good, the bad and the truly ugly.

I always remember the adage imparted to me by a former teacher of mine, who said, “There are no bad questions, only bad answers.” So I have always tried to take the approach that no matter how ridiculous the question may sound when posed, I try to answer it in the simplest, and (hopefully) the least condescending way possible.

When you study wine constantly, as you do with any subject academically, you can find yourself bloated with snobbery, acting pompous and oblivious to the fact that you once knew as much as the folks you now know more than, so you find yourself living in a false sense of superiority. No one truly knows everything about something; that is always an illusion of truth.

I always think of wine as a journey, and I may have alluded to this in previous posts, everyone has to start somewhere. I can be a guide for some folks, just like there are people who can be my guide, and people who can be their guide, etc., etc. There is always something new to learn, in wine, and in everything else.

So in thinking about those frequently asked questions, Shannon and I came up with many:

1. What is the difference between Champagne and sparkling wine?
2. What is a fortified wine?
3. What difference does a wine’s “vintage” make?
4. How is wine made?
5. What does it mean when a wine scores 90 points?
6. How is wine aged?
7. What is the difference between a fruity wine and a sweet wine?

Some of these questions are fairly simplistic. And there are hundreds more that can be asked. German wine labels are pretty confusing to most consumers, and one could ask a dozen questions concerning them (“What does Pradikat mean?”, “What does QbA stand for?”, “What is the difference between Kabinett, Spatlese and Auslese?”).

Those that have the knowledge should pass it on to those that don’t, that is something that should apply to all facets of Life, not just wine.

Personally, one question that has been asked of me is how do I determine what wines to bring into the stores, and I answer that question the same every time: I leave me personal opinion out of it, and take into consideration what each wine has to offer, and determine whether or not said wine has an audience with customers in the stores. I choose wines on their own merit, though a big influence for me is the producer’s track record; I have come to rely on certain producers and winemakers over the years that have proven to me that even in the worst of the times, they can still deliver the best. This fact overshadows the scores to me, and the fact that one vintage has been reviewed as either better or worse than the previous – it all boils down to what is in the bottle right then and there.

I love getting questions from people about wine because I love talking about wine. I am very privileged to work in a field I love. I am a huge geek about wine, much to the chagrin of my wife, my family and my friends. I could spend about as much time talking about Sangiovese from Tuscany or Grenache from Spain vs. the Rhone as I could about ‘80s British Metal bands or the movies of John Carpenter.

What questions do you have about wine? Would love to hear about ‘em.