And the winner is.............

[Botafogo]

Emphatically NO!!! They feed brand anxiety, status buying and hierarchical thinking and don't ever actually teach folks to taste for themselves and trust their own palates. My ONE question to Marvin is this:

"Can you site even ONE article about the actual consumer interface, wineshops, in your magazine? I am not asking you to grade or rate them but just to tell consumers what would be, for instance, five signs that a shop is a good one and five signs that you should run out the door."

But, NO, they fawn over restaurants and hotels to no end but then they want stores to be service bureaus for them (and their advertisers). This is a GRAVE disservice to consumers because ONLY a good, motivated, informed LOCAL merchant can take advantage of and direct customers to the best values in that consumer's market. This is a VERY volitile industry and the churning and burning on the distribution side is amazing and results in "spot market" buys of incredible value on a daily basis in larger cities. Case in point: both the Speculum and Wine and Spirits are touting 1985 A. Salon this month at $200++ while we are selling it for $125!!!

Also, a good merchant remembers what you like and don't like, your comfort level of price, and your NAME and will hold you toddler while you look at old ports. Is Harvey Steinman going to do that?

The best thing for newbies is to get a good basic book along the order of Kevin Zraly's for vocabulary and then TASTE, TASTE, TASTE till they find out what THEY like.

Don't get me started, I don't have time......

Roberto