Experience

In recent weeks and maybe even months, it has occurred to me that I suddenly have come to be regarded as having experience, in the wine business, that is.

How did that happen? In a blink of an eye, I have 5 years experience in the wine biz, 2 years in sales on the "street," with 3 years in retail.

Just last evening, I was working an event at a terrific wine bar in Santa Monica called Pourtal, and I met fellow wine people also pouring for Oktoberfest - a terrific line-up of German and Austrian red wines, including Blaufrankish, Zweigelt, St. Laurent, Portugeser, Spatburgunder, Samtrot and more. Fantastic, eclectic bunch of sales reps all selling some of the most interesting wines in the world. I met a new gal who recently started her own business importing and distributing wines after years in the business, and she asked how long I had been working for Rudi Wiest, and I said, "A little over 2 years." She replied, "Oh you've been doing it for a while then." Is two years a while? It seemed like yesterday that I started.

I'm glad that the time I have spent in the business has been successful so far, and has made me appear experienced beyond the years. I'm grateful for that! I don't think 2 years doing outside sales is much time at all - I spent over a decade working in health care as a dietitian and I still don't consider myself very experienced in that, just moderately experienced. But in all, I'm happy to give people the confidence that I seem to know what I'm doing and seem to know a little about the products I sell.

By the way, last night at the Oktoberfest tasting, the 2007 Schnaitmann Samtrot rocked, if I may say so. Great velvety texture, nice integrated acidity along with a smooth rich red fruit body. This is a red wine variety that is a regional clone of Pinot Noir. It tastes like Pinot Noir, but also not like Pinot Noir. We're going to have this wine at the Fora Restaurant Wild Game and German Wine Dinner next week on Sunday Oct 24 and it will be terrific with the wild boar sausages!

I also got to taste my cohort's Spatburgunders (Weinhof Scheu, from Schweigen, same village Friedrich Becker is from!), Pinot Noir from Austria (Juris), Zweigelt and Blaufrankisch, all very delicious red wines... more people should drink these. I'm glad there are other wine folks other there promoting the good word about these wines. And I love working an event with them - they are so much fun! Good seeing you Adam, Stetson, and Amy!