The First Time

The first time is always the most awkward. For me, it was quite messy. Just getting it out was difficult enough, but I didn't really have the tools to get the job done right. I am talking about wine for all of you closet perverts out there. And like my first time opening a bottle of wine, I am awkwardly sojourning into the blogosphere for the first time, unsure of what will come of this. I hope to get in one or two each week (posts that is), letting you know the ins-and-outs of the retail side of the grape. I hope to have my two new assistants, Jesse and Shannon put their two cents in as well, along with some interviews and of course, an appearance from me on my weather-worn soapbox.

There's a lot that goes on in bringing to you the wines we deem fit to lend space to in our stores, as I am sure many other retailers labor just as hard as we do. In our tiny store in Covington, there isn't a lot of space for everything, so it becomes an arduous process of elimination to get to the wines we feel are the most fantastic for our customers.

And there is a lot of quasi-political nonsense that accompanies the selecting of the wines, with various distributors jockeying for both the MVP and Nimrod of the Week awards, whether it is something our staff is hot on that they suddenly ran out of, or a big invoicing snafu, you never know what you're gonna get when you buy for a retail wine shop.

But instead of just boring you with all of my backroom confessionals, I want to share with you wines I think are phenomenal - whether it is for price, for uniqueness, or just an all-around steller bottle of juice. There's a host of pundits out there who weigh in on wine scores, vintages, cult status and so on, but I simply want to let you into my crazy mind, somewhat stained and saturated by the grape for the past decade or so, and share with you my twisted, left-of-center viewpoint on wine.

Let me know what you think, ask me questions, and I hope to give you a different perspective than the usual black-and-white presentation. Three cheers for thirty shades of grey - and purple!