Wow, after the amazing weekend I just survived, I guess I should give my liver a break. Or not! Beer and spicy Cajun food with my hunting buddies turned out to be a nice break from the week's stress overload. Then a quiet dinner with friends Saturday over several bottle of great vintage juice was again "just what the doctor ordered". But the ultimate weekend capper was the Italian wine dinner with the Mad Dawgs yesterday. Twenty or so world-class Brunellos from the legendary 1995, 1997, 1999 and 2001 vintages were lined up and paired with a massive amount of delicious food. After ten years of doing amazing tastings and dinners with the Mad Dawgs, it still keeps getting better and better!
On a different subject, I just went by the empty skeleton of yet another local wine shop that has gone out of business. I'll have to admit, since this is the second failure of this store after the original owners were open for something like twenty years, one has to think that there is definitely something missing in the mindset of local entrepreneurs these days. So many folks jump into the wine business on a lark, perhaps under the mistaken assumption of "How hard could it be? Come on... it's WINE!!!". I've seen so many wine shops come and go. It's sad, but then, there are some people who actually grasp the concept that there is more to running a successful wine store than having two tastings a week and inundating their customers with constant emails. Come on people... IT'S NOT ALWAYS ABOUT WHO CAN SELL WINE FOR THE LOWEST PRICE. Unfortunately some will never get it.
Having, in the past, run a wine auction website for a decade, I discovered that trying to turn an avocation into a vocation isn't as simple as it may seem on the surface. I've never put so many hours into something for so little money... EVER. I've toyed with doing the retail wine shop thing myself, but I've always come to my senses. Maybe someday though... A guy can dream can't he?
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