K Series: Shop the Importer, not the Winery
K is a very good friend. We met during Covid as roommates. He works in big tech, but he’s got an artist’s heart. He loves food and he is an excellent cook. His palate is refined. We ate and we drank. We talked and dreamed, and whiteboarded and shared many late nights venting to each other. He got me into karaoke as a cathartic practice (for that I am truly grateful). And now, he is one of my very good friends.
Anyways, having the soul of an artist and the palate of a chef, yet not knowing wine, K has asked me a lot of questions about wine. Such as...How do I learn about wine? How do I get into wine? How do I shop a wine list well? What is the best value house wine? Where should I be buying wine? If I wanted to start collecting and putting away wine, where should I buy? When at a restaurant, how do I navigate a wine list, a wine program? How do I manage a wine list in a corporate dining setting? What do I drink for this dish, for that dish, for this cuisine, for that cuisine?
K wanted the full tutorial, and over the past two years of knowing him, I have given him my thoughts on these and so many other questions that have come about. So, I have decided to publish these as the K Series.
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Lesson 1: No one shops for, like the Spring 2007, Banana Republic, men's olive merino wool v-neck sweater. We simply shop at Banana Republic and look at what they have in sweaters...Or the Gap...Or Buck Mason. Or whatever brand store you like. We shop the store.
Similarly, in wine (when the wine is imported and we don't know the winery), we in the wine trade don't shop by the producer, we shop by the importer. We don't go searching for those '2007 Spring pants at Banana Repiblic', we simply turn the bottle around and look for the importer; the importer is our Banana Republic- our store within the store.
At Banana Republic, we know the general style and the general quality level. We know the price levels, and we have a general sense of what the store is all about. Similarly, the wine importer has a certain palate, a certain style and quality level, and there is a general sense of the types of wineries they work with. And like being open to shopping new sweaters at Banana Republic, shopping the wine importer allows us to explore new wines with a sense of confidence.
So, the next time you have an imported wine you love.
1.Take a picture of the front label AND the back label- note the producer and the importer. And
2. Go look for more wines brought in by that same importer.
