Industry Knowledge Gaps

You need a bottle of wine. Or a case of wine. Or a cellar full. So, you go to your local wine shop. You find a friendly person working on the floor and ask for help. What kind of help might you get?

That's a really tough question. To help you understand how diverse that advice might be, let's consider a tale of two such people on the floor of the same wine shop. While changing the characters to protect the innocent and the guilty, the story you are about to read is true.

I was in this shop and to me, the layout was quite confusing. Despite the signage, I could not find what I was looking for. I knew they had it ... somewhere ... but due to the organization, that where part was a mystery to me.

So, I located a nice man wearing a name badge which to me meant that he worked there. And, that assumption was correct. I asked if he could help me and here, I am going to invent a few facts, again to protect the guilty. He asked me what I was looking for and since I was looking for some red wines indigenous to Germany and Austria, I told him Blaufrankisch and Zweigelt. 

Now, even if you've never tasted wines from either or both of those grapes, if you are a long-time reader, you might recall that I covered both of them way back last spring. You might not remember a thing about them, but even as just a casual reader, you might recall that we did [virtually] taste them.

Well, my helpful friend had an interesting answer for me. "I don't think we carry those brands." That part is true. He thought they were brands. And he is in the wine business. And, his name tag told me that he was a Senior Wine Associate. I thanked him and moved on.

Wandering and apparently looking puzzled, I was approached by a young woman, also wearing a name tag. Hers identified her as a Wine Associate (not senior). She asked if she could help. I gave her the same request in that I was looking for a Blaufrankisch and Zweigelt.

Her response was much different. Of course, she could help me, although she did inform me that they did not have a significant selection of either. As we walked to the section where we could find these wines, she told me that she had never had anyone ask her previously for either of those varietals. We discussed why I wanted them.

As we walked, I learned that this was one of her two jobs, the other being a server in a higher-end local restaurant. She wants to make a career our of the wine industry and was going to be taking her Level 2 sommelier test in a week or so. She was thrilled to be able to talk wine with a customer. She also whispered that she was bothered by how unknowledgeable the higher paid than her asscoiates in the store were.

Motivating me to write this, however, was an encounter with a young man who works in wine distribution a few weeks ago. We got to talking about wine although the setting for our conversation was far away from any wine shop, restaurant, or frankly any wine.

He asked me what was the best wine I have ever had. In turn, I asked him how specific he wanted me to be. Was he interested in just type of wine or name of winery/estate/domain, or something more than that. He answered with something to the effect of "Well, I love oaky Chardonnay; isn't that the best wine you've ever had?"

Sigh ...