West Side Wine

If you’re finding, or rather not finding, your favorite French (and soon your favorite Spanish) wine, it’s probably not the fault of your retailer. France has been enduring a ten-week dock strike in Marseille, so many of the wines from Southern France have been stuck in the country or dribbling out of Antwerp, Belgium. Barcelona was another possibility for escape, until two weeks ago, when Spanish truckers went on strike protesting the high price of diesel fuel. They’ve now successfully blocked that port. This kind of stuff drives me nuts. Not only do we have to deal with the insanity of the euro, but now we can’t even get our hands on the wines no matter what the cost. I spend a lot of time researching, hunting down and tasting wines.  When I finally find something I love, and know my customers will too, it’s discouraging to find that they’re currently not available and have no predictable e.t.a.  With better wines being consumed at an unheard of rate these days, you have to move quickly or it’s gone — and there’s no return in sight. 
A plea for patience. Use this as an opportunity to try something new in the meantime. That’s the “glass is half full” way to look at it. Trying something new every chance you get is always a smart and good thing. 

Okay, so this woman I’ve never seen before sticks her head in the door of West Side Wine and the “dialogue” went like this:
  “Do you have Paul Masson Chablis?” 
“No, ma’am.” 
“Do you have Lancer’s?” 
“No, ma’am.” 
“Do you have Mateus?” 
“No, ma’am.” 
“Why don’t you carry wines that people like?” 
With that, she stormed off. 
Obviously, she hadn’t tasted my Oudin Vaugiraut Chablis ’05 or “Les Serres” 06, or my Simon Billaud Montée de Tonnère ’04 Chablis. I guess only the Chablis from California (?) as opposed to the Chablis from Chablis would do. And rosés? How about one of my 30 different choices, like the Lafond Tavel ’07 or the Boulay Sancerre or the Baudry Chinon or the Piage Barbera? I guess only the fizzy, sweet Portuguese would do. 
If only she had given me a chance to show her around, I’m sure I could have opened her eyes to new and exciting alternatives. You think? Ah, always the optimist. Maybe she’ll come by again some day. I’ll be ready for her, you can bet on that.

They come, they go. Mostly they move out of the neighborhood, and sometimes it’s my snarkiness that causes them to never return. And sometimes they die. This was the case of a gentleman whose name I knew, but knew little about until he died. His name was Van Varner, an elderly gentleman who  always came in to West Side Wine accompanied by an equally elderly black mutt, and his adult son (Van’s, not the mutt’s.) I could tell that Van had had some medical issues because of his slightly slurred speech and his labored handwriting when signing his credit card slip. But every single time he came in he would look me square in the eye and sincerely ask me how it was going. ”Are you doing ok? How’s the business doing? Good? Well, that’s just great. Keep at it and everything will be just fine.”  This is not the usual New York, tough-as-nails, I’m-in-a- hurry kind of customer. So he really stuck in my mind, and I always looked forward to seeing him. He never failed to make me feel good about myself and what I was doing. So when I learned of his death, it got to me. I decided to google him to see if I could find out more about this man. Who was he? Well, it turns out he was for many years the editor-in-chief of Guidepost Magazine, a publication based upon the teachings of Dr Norman Vincent Peale….the power of positive thinking?  I had to laugh. Wow. A guy who actually practiced what he preached.  Maybe there should be more positive thinking in our lives. Thanks, Van. I’ll do my best to keep you in mind when I’m ready to lose it. No promises, however.

We love this time of year over here on the “unhip” Upper West Side. Shakespeare In The Park is just a couple of blocks away, and it started its 2008 season on Tuesday with Hamlet by old whatshisname. Ellen and I went Thursday. The production is fantastic. Considering it was only the third night of previews, these guys really had their act together. Notables are Lauren Ambrose as Ophelia, Andre Braugher as Claudius, Sam Waterston as Polonius and very notable, Michael Stuhlbarg as you-know-who. There have been a few turkeys over the past few years, but this is not one of them. A great night at the theater, but get some rest before you go — it runs until about 11:30. And bring in a little wine to sip while you’re watching. As long as it’s not in a glass container, it’s cool. West Side Wine has sold alot of Three Thieves Pinot Grigio and Cabernet Sauvignon in one-litre cartons to theater-goers over the past couple of nights.
The icing on the Hamlet cake came last night when a woman came in to buy some wine. She was introduced to me by one of my associates as Gertrude. It took me a few seconds to realize she was the actor playing Gertrude, Hamlet’s mom, in the play (Margaret Colin.)  “I saw you the other night!” I said excitedly. “Well, I’ve been in once or twice,” she replied.  “No, I mean I really SAW you the other night, and you were terrific!” She was shocked, delighted and gracious. 
So, catch the show before the rest of the City wakes up.  It’s not currently selling out, but it will when the word gets out.