Apothic Brew

Sure to be a board darling…

The only coffee-flavored wine I ever put in my mouth might have been the worst thing I’ve ever tasted.

Well, Kyle…I can hardly wait for the Apothic Pig…flavored w/ bacon.
Tom

Now, I’d actually try that. I’ve actually had over-oaked chardonnay that I was sure was infused with bacon.

Gotta love trends . . .

If it works for beer and craft distillation, it’ll work in wine, right?

And my guess is that, just like the bourbon-barrel stuff, it’ll ‘catch on’ for at least a few months. You’ll see plenty of advertising on it shortly, and with Gallo’s marketing push, you’ll see it take up shelf space at the expense of other wines . . .

Speaking of which, whatever happened to Bartle & Jaymes?

Launching April 1st…hmm…

Bad enough Surly makes a Coffee Bender. I love beer and coffee but coffee beer no!

I think this is the heart of the matter.

In my retail days, it was all about maximizing SKU’s, the dominance of prime shelf space by the competing distribution companies of my area.

I may have tasted a $6 Merlot from a “Fightin’ Varietal” producer and considered it a potential winner with some regular customers. Whoa, now! The sales rep would think that the gate was wide open for every…$#&@…bottling in that brand’s line-up:

“Why not try the Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, the un-oaked Chardonnay, the 1.5L bottles… You know that we have a 1-on-10 case deal on this? Let’s do and end-cap stack of cases for display, and I will give you a 1-on-8 case bargain when you buy 50 cases!”

I had to be a politician amongst the sales reps and a truthful servant of consumer tastes, while making a buck for my boss.

I didn’t care about the fact that one distributor had 54% product representation on the eye-level shelf of our store’s “Grocery Store Wine Aisle”.

Pretty soon, I wasn’t accepting any tasting offers of new “Grocery Wines”; I simply focused on the lay-down racks of the nicer wines. The battle zone there was less aggressive as I hand-sold what I knew a specific customer would like, based on his/her past preferences.

As the market for the “Fightin’ Varietals” seems to have waned, there emerged a new “Adjective-Infused” branding for the world’s “Grocery Store Wines”.

…and the beat goes on…

That was a great post, Drew.

challenging convention through its innovative blends

You guys are all stick-in-the-muds.

I would be very careful about calling this innovative item bad just because your palates are so jaded.

I’m sick of the AFWE telling me I have to enjoy wine that tastes too winey to me. That’s like telling me I’m supposed to like fish that’s really fishy tasting. Ugh.

This seems like a great way to start the day!

Cougar Four Loco? Red Bull and Vodka for B&T Sophisticates? A joke in bad taste? California Kalimoxto? Who knows? Bailey’s Irish Cream was considered a strange abomination when it was first introduced in the 70’s.

A fellow gave me a bottle of left over Bailey’s from an event. A shot in my Latte went over well!
Back in the college days, we made cowboy coffee in a pan, a shot of whiskey always improved the brew.