Several questions

[Thomas]

Woodman, I can't agree more. In the case of distributor companies, SALES training takes priority over WINE training, and even the sales training is woefully wanting.

Just yesterday a so-called wine salesman admitted to me that he does not drink any alcohol--he can't stand the taste! But a few minutes before that he was expounding on the smoothness and elegance of a particular product that had about as much elegance as Isabel...And one day last week, the owner of a new distributorship mentioned to me that he started drinking a glass of red wine about three months ago because he read about its health benefits. When I asked him what he drank before then--Coca Cola came the answer.

A further point, I have come across an awful lot of "wine" people from the West Coast who believe that California saved the entire universal wine industry--you can't get more egocentric than that. And I have come across many "wine" sales people on the East Coast who don't know the difference between Chardonnay and Chablis.