Comments on: Sommelier, store clerk or shelf-talker: who makes the best wine picks?

By: DewEye

DewEye — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:40:34 +0000

I say go with your GLUT!
Great article! Unfortunately, sommeliers are very scant here in Colorado Springs, CO. But having lived in the wine country, visited Italy, and frequented New York over the last year, it seems to me there is no general rule of thumb, except to go with your glut I mean gut. I am always grateful for the shelf-talker’s because they stretch my imagination and remind me of tastes I should look for. Sommeliers usually intimidate me, which tends to make me distrust them. Wine shop staff are very hit and miss. Friends are more miss than hit for me. Having said all that, I have found that when I find someone or something that tends to give me good recommendations, I go back. For me what works are Dr. Vino’s words, a good friend in New York, a German friend in Dallas, a salesman in Boulder, and some occasional reading in the major wine rags, but nothing beats spending some money and time in just letting my own budget and mouth have the final say.

By: Gregg

Gregg — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:55:16 +0000

What do Bush & Iraq have to do with wine shops & NY magazine?

By: SandraL

SandraL — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:11:06 +0000

I have been in the wine business on the restaurant side and the retail side. The article was unbelievably biased and disheartening. I also shop at many of the stores and have never come across any staff as “ignorant” as described in the article. I also have come into contact either at tastings or restaurants with the sommeliers. I also wonder what the agenda of the Ny mag was. I would hope that they wanted to educate, but it seems very mean spirited. Someone write this article for real and then let’s have a dialogue.

By: SteveF

SteveF — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 15:12:56 +0000

The store I own is September Wines on the Lower East Side. I have not yet taken up the issue with NY Mag editor’s but I intend to. The agenda I suspect they had was to extol the talents of sommeliers and bash those of the retail clerks. While most of the old school liquor stores in NYC offer either no service of misinformed information, there are scores of small new boutique shops like ours where we taste every wine before it comes into the store - and therefore we know the wines.

By: Bill F.

Bill F. — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 23:37:46 +0000

Steve, Jack and bb are all correct - matching your palate to the wine is the most important thing. I have found tools like winescorecard.com that people with a similar palate to mine to be pretty useful ways to select a wine.

By: Dr. Vino

Dr. Vino — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 15:50:12 +0000

Very interesting, indeed, SteveF. Have you alerted NY mag editors? Just what “agenda” do you suspect they had?

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 23:04:05 +0000

Hey Steve F,

That’s an amazing rebuttal which makes a lot of sense after re-reading the article. The two groups that appear clueless in the article are the clerks and the journalists. I seriously rely on the knowledge of wine store staff and was baffled by the bad and lame picks.

Which store are you? I can see if you don’t want the press against you and perhaps all the stores should speak up but it would be interesting to know.

The full bodied German comment by the Crossroads person must have been misquoted or made up.

By: Gretchen

Gretchen — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 21:58:26 +0000

I have to admit that I tend to use the flaps of paper or the opinions of friends to find wines that I might like. But generally no one ever waits on me in wine shops… I tend to be invisible that way…

By: steveF

steveF — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 21:49:22 +0000

I happen to own (and work the retail floor at)one of those stores that appeared in the article and I can tell you that no one from NY Magazine ever came in here. They called 4 times over the course of the day and asked us if we had any of the wines that were on a list that they had compiled. When we had a match, they said “great. thanks.” So no one from my store ever had this supposed interaction with the NY Mag people.

They had an agenda and went about fulfilling it in their own way (like Bush & Iraq).

Furthermore, my sales people are paid a salary. They are not compensated by how much nor which wines they sell.

By: bb

bb — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:20:31 +0000

“The amazing thing is that this venerable sage doesn’t drink wine.”

I don’t find this very surprising. I believe the average wine drinker will trust an ‘expert’ or a magazine rating before they will ever trust their own palate.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 14:14:22 +0000

A true wine story:

A friend of mine works in Famous Wine Shop in Big City (names have been changed to protect the guilty) along with an older gentleman who has a huge loyal following. People will wait quite a while for him if he’s out to lunch, on a break or busy with other customers and will accept none of the other clerks’ suggestions. The amazing thing is that this venerable sage doesn’t drink wine.

By: gianpaolo

gianpaolo — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:38:45 +0000

I make wine, so I should know a little more than the average about wine, wineries,etc., at least when it comes to my wine region. I also read a lot of pubblications about wine, so I’m probably quite aware of what’d going on. But my approach when I go to a restaurant or a wine shop where I know there are good wine people is always to ask for a reccomandation, something new that I have never tasted before or something that they have tasted and got excited with it. In my opinion that’s one of the best ways to discover new exciting wines, not asking them to try to interpretate what I would want but asking them to give me what they have liked. There are a few disappointments from time to time, but they hugely compensated by some fantastic discovery.
Of course this approach can only work when you know that the people you are asking to are trustworthy and knowledgeable about their job, but hey, aren’t they the only places where one should go anyway?

By: Eddie H.

Eddie H. — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 03:51:02 +0000

I think this just goes to show the importance of building a relationship with a store clerk. There are lousy sommeliers, lousy sales clerks, and even lousy “wine experts.” I think it’s all about finding a wine merchant who knows your tastes and can be trusted to pick out a great wine according to that taste. I would not praise/blast any of the clerks in the article for one good/bad choice.

By: John

John — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 22:21:42 +0000

Generally, I, and most anyone, will trust someone with benefit of the most knowledge. I voted for the somms, not in scraping deference to their assumed knowledge…well, ok, a little ;-)…but rather for the simple reason that I assume, when getting a rec. from a sommelier, that we have a specific, or fairly narrow, food pairing, with which he’s familiar. So, I’m more willing to give an unknown som the benefit of more trust than I would an unknown clerk.

I happily take recommendations from friends, too.

By: Dr. Vino

Dr. Vino — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 21:58:43 +0000

Great comments here.

To Gretchen, what about YOUR opinion?

Eric - yes, weren’t the WILDLY divergent interpretations of the wines fascinating? Quality is in the eye of the glassholder…

I’m glad friends are coming out on top so far in the poll. I do like the synthesis that has emerged — make a friend of a clerk (or a sommelier) and reap the rewards in your wine glass! That’s a major drawback of internet vendors.