Wine of the Month Clubs

[doug'n'boston]

KC - I've been in, being a frequent shopper of Whole Foods (next door). Haven't bought anything there, nice selection, friendly people, clean store, easy to shop ... but they did one thing that bugged me and I don't find their prices to be "the lowest in Framingham", as they say. The thing that bugged me, and I havn't seen it in a while, was their in-store advertising of "average ratings". I asked once "average of what?" and they couldn't tell me. So were they picking the scores to average, leaving out ones that would bring it down? Why not just show all the ratings? Did it include their own rating? It just seemed, well fishy. Could be totally legit, but it didn't feel that way.

Maybe they'll win me over someday, but havn't yet.

What I like about 5th ave (over by BJ's in the Stop and Shop complex) is that Fred (just met him) gets hard to find stuff. He has a Turley Zin which I have not seen distributed outside a mailing list or resturants. He did steer me to a Malbec for a "value" bottle ... it was bad, but I think corked and not his fault. Next time in I'll be letting him know and see how he responds.

At the Wine Cellar in Waltham they remember you, and they remember what they recommended to you. It can be weeks, even months later and they'll ask, "how was that ...?" and once I made a face ... not a good one ... he replaced the bottle with out question. A month ago I was headed to a party, needed a gift for the host and thought of the new Riedel stemless glasses. Stopped there at closing ... they were locking the doors and unlocked the door, saying "come in Doug". Man, you gotta like that.

For deals ... I like making a trip to Mall Liquors in Cambridge (Fresh Pond). Have you been there?