Boss is 100% Win with SC's

[KiaKat]

For the most part, the customers in my new store are wonderful. Friendly, knowledgeable (or willing to listen to us, the experts), witty, and quite easy to get along with.

Every now and again, we get one who thinks she knows better than we do. One of them came in yesterday, blathering about biodynamic wines and sulfites, and, well, let's just say she was definitely aware of all the buzzwords. She was also insistent that if a wine didn't SAY "Organic" on the label, it couldn't BE organic.

Never mind that most of the wineries we carry sell out so quickly there's no point in marketing. In some cases, these are wines that ship MAYBE five cases per vintage to the northeast US. Spending the money on an organic certification is, frankly, stupid. Add to that the fact that the US has some odd requirements for certification (no added sulfites - even though sulfites occur naturally in wine...), and you get even more wineries that don't bother getting certified. In some cases, these are wineries that have been making wine the exact same way for 200+ years.

That wasn't good enough for Ms. Organic. She was certain that an organic wine couldn't contain ANY sulfites in ANY amount (even what occurs naturally), because that's how they do it in her country. Even though in order to contain no sulfites whatsoever, a winery has to add a whole bunch of nasty chemicals to diffuse the sulfur.

I was letting her beat her head into my brick wall of "nuh uh not possible" when Boss stepped in and started backing me up. He was polite, gentle, and completely schooled her on organic wines - even went so far as to print out a sheaf of papers an inch thick on wineries, distributors, and winemakers that we carry, along with an explanation of why the terms "organic" and "biodynamic" should be replaced with the words "natural and traditional" because they're more accurate. He started explaining about "naked" wines and extolling their virtues... which got Ms. Organic agreeing with him. She bought three bottles of wine (none of which SAID "Organic," but all of which ARE organic), and left with a smile on her face.

I can learn a lot from this man.

[tropicsgoddess]

Damn, your boss is good!

[BrenDAnn]

Can your boss possibly hold a seminar sometime for everyone to learn from him? WOW!

[Trjgul]

Woah! Now THAT is some skill! When I saw the title I expected the worst! Is your store a chain? I'd imagine corporate LOVES him!

[Kristev]

I am impressed.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Not sure how you could have a completely sulfite free wine. Wouldn't it become unstable?

Hm....must look into this...

[hinakiba777]

Wow your boss is smooth! I am so impressed!

[Raveni]

Not sure how you could have a completely sulfite free wine. Wouldn't it become unstable?

Hm....must look into this...

I forsee much taste testing in your future.

[teh_blumchenkinder]

For the most part, the customers in my new store are wonderful. Friendly, knowledgeable (or willing to listen to us, the experts), witty, and quite easy to get along with.

Every now and again, we get one who thinks she knows better than we do. One of them came in yesterday, blathering about biodynamic wines and sulfites, and, well, let's just say she was definitely aware of all the buzzwords. She was also insistent that if a wine didn't SAY "Organic" on the label, it couldn't BE organic.

biodynamic? Does she know anything about wine? Damn.

Never mind that most of the wineries we carry sell out so quickly there's no point in marketing.
snip

best kind of marketing: so awesome they don't even need it.

That wasn't good enough for Ms. Organic. She was certain that an organic wine couldn't contain ANY sulfites in ANY amount (even what occurs naturally), because that's how they do it in her country. Even though in order to contain no sulfites whatsoever, a winery has to add a whole bunch of nasty chemicals to diffuse the sulfur.
snip
I can learn a lot from this man.

yes. yes. and cool job, bro. in all seriousness-- that man has a silver tongue and a golden mien. Awesome.
Also, I wonder about the US FDA sometimes.... granted I wonder about the U.S. at times too!

[Docmayhem]

Not sure how you could have a completely sulfite free wine. Wouldn't it become unstable?

Hm....must look into this...

Try mead. I recommend Brotherhood Winery's Sheba Tej - it's a 2000 year old Ethiopian recipe.

[Nyoibo]

That wasn't good enough for Ms. Organic. She was certain that an organic wine couldn't contain ANY sulfites in ANY amount (even what occurs naturally), because that's how they do it in her country.

Just out of interest, what was "her country"?

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Oh, I've tried many, many meads. I've MADE mead. I have five gallons bottle aging even as we speak. But even homebrews you have to stablize or they'll blow their corks. Or get some sort of nasty bacteria.

[KiaKat]

Sulfites are a natural byproduct of fermentation. If it's alcohol, it has sulfur dioxide. It is supposedly possible to remove the naturally-produced sulfites, but it involves a whole brew of nasty chemicals, and the resulting wine is not considered organic.

One way to avoid adding SO2 is to do what's called cold stabilization. But that can cause some odd side effects in wine, especially in regards to tartaric acid and tannin. I know of one winemaker who does neither, and he makes wonderfully naked wines that have a weird habit of randomly falling apart, flavour-wise.

Wines can be certified biodynamic. There's an international organization that the wineries can pay to certify them - the Demeter Organization. A lot of wineries follow some of the methods of biodynamic farming, but don't take the certification because they don't want to follow some of the more obscure methods (i.e. bury a horn of manure at the corner of the vineyard on the first full moon after the equinox, then dig it up one cycle of the moon later, etc). It's all very odd.

And to answer the question - no, we're not corporate. Boss owns the store, and has learned how to mollify people through the years. And even he admits to having pissed people off. Really, he's a very reasonable and good Boss. I like working for him, and his wife.

[2gigch1]

If you try to meet an asteroid head on you get a huge explosion and lots of debris.

If you gently nudge it from the side after awhile you get the asteroid going the way you want it to go.

That's a mighty fine astrophysicist boss ya got there...

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Not sure how you could have a completely sulfite free wine. Wouldn't it become unstable?

Hm....must look into this...

I've also heard that the sulfites in wine can trigger migraines in some people. So for those folks who do have the migraines, perhaps a sulfite free wine would be a good idea to try.