Today was a good day

I talked to a number of my favorite customers and shared with them the good news: their Justice series and Phelps Insignia are on the loose and they can expect delivery of their cases next week. Everyone wants to put the Valley’s best wines sourced by their wine scout in their cellar. Fall is the perfect time to stock up on the goods, and weather is great for shipping. Excitement is already is in the air for the 2010 holiday season - or as some of us call it, the "eating and partying" season. Our customers aren’t the only ones that have it good, though.

It is nearing the end of a long day at work and around 4:30 I hear the sound of over one dozen bottles getting opened. We know that our wine buyers are hard at work tasting hundreds of wines per week and making important decisions. When the tempo cools down a bit, I slip in to the tasting lab and play catch up.

‘This oaked Chard is nice, but the Carneros one is better.'

‘Pinots in this price point are driving the market. I wish more of them tasted this good.'

‘This is one of the best $50 cabs I’ve ever tasted…’

There’s no less than 25 wines on the table from some our favorite producers. Today’s standouts: Waypoint ‘Donum Estate’ Chardonnay, Vineyard 7&8 Estate Cabernet, and Pursuit 'George III' Cabernet. Did someone say there was O’Shaughnessy open? No, that’s tomorrow. Research - it's a dirty job but SOMEONE has to do it.

Ram, Nicolas and I grab the Waypoint Chardonnay and Pursuit 'GIII' and head across the street to the wine bar for some ribs and slaw and share today’s bounty with the rib slingers. Everyone in the wine bar is going crazy over the Pursuit Cabs right now. We rehash the day’s events and talk about the funniest things that happened. One customer bought 10 cases of Streamside Chardonnay because his wife and in laws LOVE the stuff and Bounty Hunter’s biggest Diamond Creek fan bought something besides Diamond Creek for the first time - ever. We learned that he was interested in trying some nice Pinots.

When its time to head our separate ways Nicolas reminds the group that we’ve got dinner at Norman Rose tomorrow and we’re watching the big game. In downtown Napa, life is good.

--Ryan Crosbie, Wine Scout