Wine shop owner asks: Couldn't I sell cheese?

Wanted to share this op-ed that appeared in last Wednesday's edition of the New York Times. With a proposal to allow New York grocery stores to begin selling wine, an owner of a wine shop asks why he can't sell cheese.

By MARCO PASANELLA
Published: March 19, 2009

“DIO mio!” exclaimed my father, Giovanni, over the phone. I had just informed him of Gov. David Paterson’s proposal to allow New York grocery stores to sell wine. And I could practically see him reaching for the Chianti when, as the owner of a small wine shop in downtown Manhattan, I told him I thought it could actually be a good thing.

Thirty-five states already permit wine sales in grocery stores, and those states still have independent retailers. But the common wisdom persists that such a move will crush me, the little guy. Big-box retailers will use their superior buying muscle to force me and my fellow independents out of business.

This is definitely a fear, especially in a slowing economy. Much of our daily sales are moderately priced bottles, a category likely to be offered in grocery stores as well. And smaller suburban retailers may indeed have it tougher as shoppers opt for the convenience of having one fewer place to drive.

But I also see these proposed changes as a huge opportunity to serve our customers better while redressing outdated, irrational and inequitable laws.

New York’s Alcoholic Beverage Control code, which has governed the sale of wine, beer and liquor since Prohibition was repealed in 1933, sometimes seems like a charmingly genteel relic of a bygone era, when buying wine for Sunday supper was regarded as the Devil’s work. We still can’t open before noon on the Sabbath.

I’m not bemoaning the loss of the Sunday breakfast crowd. But these proposals will bring increased competition, and it’s only fair that there should be commensurate opportunities to expand our small businesses. If supermarkets can have multiple locations, why are we prohibited (pardon the pun) from operating more than one store? Or from keeping the same hours?

If grocery stores can sell a Côtes du Rhône, then why shouldn’t we be able to sell baguettes and cheese? How about artisan beer? Or just reusable shopping bags? (A Rochester store was recently fined a whopping $10,000 for doing this.) What goes for the grocery stores should go for us too.

If the laws were truly fair, we independent retailers will have our own advantages. Big chains will have to buy big. And while your local supermarket pushes those same familiar bottles, independent stores will still provide substantially more selection and be better able to seek out smaller, even very limited producers, like the guy who makes just 40 cases a year of really good lambrusco.

Wine, after all, has always been more than just a floor-stacked commodity. A pleasure to be savored, a conduit for culture and the fastest way to bring people together that I know of, it’s also hard to buy without trusted help. Come to us with a recipe for gnocchi with Gorgonzola, for example, and we will help you pair it with the perfect wine — a nebbiolo from Italy’s Langhe region, in this case. And we will know you by name. Try getting that from the teenager with the name tag and the vest.

Marco Pasanella owns a wine store.

City winery warms to Frederick's Fire in Ice

This is the time of the year when many of the regional wineries jump headfirst into their calendar of events. That includes Frederick (Md.) Cellars, where the city will hold its annual Fire in Ice celebration this weekend as part of its First Saturday program. There will be ice sculptures located throughout downtown, an ice carving demonstration, an ice playground, marshmallow roasting stations, and free hot cocoa. The event itself will take place from 5 to 9 p.m., although the winery will open at noon that day. Bo Weevil will play in the Cellar from 6:30 to 9.

As part of President's Weekend, the winery will honor former prez Thomas Jefferson, an avid wine drinker. Flights and glasses of Frederick's vintage Cabernets and Merlot will be offered in the tasting room, and 25 percent discounts on several wines will be available in the wine shop. The event will give visitors a rare chance to taste the vintage wines; well, at least without having to buy a bottle or two.

What makes Frederick Cellars unique is its location; rather than out in the middle of nowhere, as is the case for so many wineries in this region, this one is located downtown among the shops and restaurants of Shab Row and Everedy Square. Perhaps this almost one-of-a-kind arrangement will change over time; certainly you can find cities with working breweries located along one of the main streets. The idea of converting grapes into wine amid other businesses on a main thoroughfare or side street remains fairly foreign in this country. Still, that's changing a bit, as New York Times writer Eric Asimov noted in a Jan. 27 story and in this blog post a day later on the new City Winery in New York. It's a combo music venue and wine bar that also gives customers a chance to at least get their hands dirty in winemaking.

Asimov noted in his story that "City Winery is one of several custom winemaking facilities that have opened around the country in the last decade. Crushpad in San Francisco and Portland Wine Project in Portland, Ore., both offer similar hands-on participation, while, compared with those economy-class operations, Napa Valley Reserve in Saint Helena, Calif., offers a piece of a corporate jet, allowing members to help tend the vines and make the wines, for fees beginning around $150,000."

With cities seeking more urban commerce, and with new winemakers able to fill one of a growing number of open spaces or convertable buildings, it's not far-fetched to assume that others could follow.