Reply made to one of Madeline’s WineFolly Youtubes
Madeline
I was just watching your youtube on retail. This has always been close to me. I started in wine retail in 1969. Spent 5 years there learning from a sommelier and focusing on French, German and Italian wines. I also spent some time with a distributor and a wholesaler. This gave me a better understanding of the entire industry. I left that industry and spent the next 35 years with IBM. But i stayed close to wines. Running private wine tastings and working part time to run wine tastings for a retail shop. Then when I retired from IBM I went back into retail as a wine consultant. Some much has changed since 2000. Companies like Barefoot selling every type of wine from different countries and explaining they do not make their own wines .
Then 90+ came out that explained to the consumer that they basically had someone make their wines from different countries and sold it under there label. A much better product then Barefoot. This provided and easy method for retailers Sell and customers to purchase. EasyBreezy. But the better shops made sure the big names were there. For US, it was Mondavi, Wente, Silverado and tons more. Then add all the international wines.
For a novice consumer wine buying can be very scary. Thats why a good retail person makes all the difference. I’ve tried to expand on this on my blog, which is in my bio. I just have to tell you in the 40+ years in this business, reading dozens of books, attending countless seminars,etc. your approach is the MOST REFRESHING, FUN, EASY TO UNDERSTAND and DETAILS about WINE