Pre-Schmoozing
May. 4th, 2008 03:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snousleThis weekend saw a little wine tasting festival in Hopland, so I rode down and checked it out. This also marks the first time I've "voluntarily" left the mountain in several weeks, i.e. for some reason other than actual necessity.
It was expensive and fairly banal, though I understand part of the proceeds went to charity. About ten different locations offered wine tasting (which they offer regularly anyway) and snacks (which they do not) - so at $35 it came out to about five dollars per snack. Most of the samples were aimed at marketing processed foods, like sauces and tapenades, being sold out of those same wine shops. One shop, attached to a restaurant, offered more interesting fare, like canapes with smoked duck and prunes, and little cups of bay shrimp tabouleh. But on the whole it was pointedly not worth the money.
I used the opportunity to get a broader sample of local wines without the sense of mooching. Most of the wine tasting here is free, and I usually buy stuff when I taste, but frankly the whole wine-tourist routine makes me uncomfortable. The local wines are pretty good, but for the most part they're nothing special, and there weren't too many things that stuck out from the pack. One exception, though - McDowell has branched out from their mostly-Syrah lineup and now makes a really kickass Viogner that was by far my favorite. (And on sale for $10 a bottle!)
Mostly, I wanted to try a little practice-schmoozing when most of the producers would be in their shops. I'm not all that eager to "market" the business in any way until the kitchen is actually licensed and running - I'm so close to saying "yes I can do this for you now" that to say "I'm not sure I can do that yet" is just unbearable. So I'm keeping a low profile for the moment. But a little snooping around couldn't hurt.
Most of the people on hand turned out to be volunteers, and often the owners weren't around after all. I did get a chance to chat with a guy that produces local organic beef and sells it out of his wine shop. The people around here are a little odd when it comes to business - he seemed eager to think up all the ways he could avoid selling me beef. For example, he asked if I was interested in primitive cuts, and when my eyes lit up and I started talking about doing my own French style butchery, he launched into a spiel about how difficult it was for him to do that because of all the regulations, and how he had to go all the way to Corning for processing and he didn't know what he could arrange, yadda yadda... it was almost an anti-sales pitch.
Oh well, it was sure a nice day to be out. Can't complain about wine and sunshine, because the spring isn't going to last very long!
It was expensive and fairly banal, though I understand part of the proceeds went to charity. About ten different locations offered wine tasting (which they offer regularly anyway) and snacks (which they do not) - so at $35 it came out to about five dollars per snack. Most of the samples were aimed at marketing processed foods, like sauces and tapenades, being sold out of those same wine shops. One shop, attached to a restaurant, offered more interesting fare, like canapes with smoked duck and prunes, and little cups of bay shrimp tabouleh. But on the whole it was pointedly not worth the money.
I used the opportunity to get a broader sample of local wines without the sense of mooching. Most of the wine tasting here is free, and I usually buy stuff when I taste, but frankly the whole wine-tourist routine makes me uncomfortable. The local wines are pretty good, but for the most part they're nothing special, and there weren't too many things that stuck out from the pack. One exception, though - McDowell has branched out from their mostly-Syrah lineup and now makes a really kickass Viogner that was by far my favorite. (And on sale for $10 a bottle!)
Mostly, I wanted to try a little practice-schmoozing when most of the producers would be in their shops. I'm not all that eager to "market" the business in any way until the kitchen is actually licensed and running - I'm so close to saying "yes I can do this for you now" that to say "I'm not sure I can do that yet" is just unbearable. So I'm keeping a low profile for the moment. But a little snooping around couldn't hurt.
Most of the people on hand turned out to be volunteers, and often the owners weren't around after all. I did get a chance to chat with a guy that produces local organic beef and sells it out of his wine shop. The people around here are a little odd when it comes to business - he seemed eager to think up all the ways he could avoid selling me beef. For example, he asked if I was interested in primitive cuts, and when my eyes lit up and I started talking about doing my own French style butchery, he launched into a spiel about how difficult it was for him to do that because of all the regulations, and how he had to go all the way to Corning for processing and he didn't know what he could arrange, yadda yadda... it was almost an anti-sales pitch.
Oh well, it was sure a nice day to be out. Can't complain about wine and sunshine, because the spring isn't going to last very long!
