Confirm: Barbuto

Um, if you were wondering if Barbuto's Roast Chicken is that good....IT IS.

...:)

To be a Rep

My last post was in 2010.

Two years ago. Yes, I know...OK, now that the verbal flogging part is over...If you're in need of an update...Personally, I spent 2010 with the wonderful folks at T Edward Wines. Good people, great portfolio. And then at the whee end of 2010 that lady (Summer Wolff, my partner in Indie) to my right offered a chance to launch a company with her called Indie Wineries and we did so in January 2011, and we've been off to the races ever since.

2011- crazy, amazing, scary, fun, exciting, manic year (IE- any business owner's first year in business, no?)

2012- is already better than the entire first half of 2011...:)

And now I find myself in NYC, in a small East Village flat, which I crash at mid-week, and I'm thinking about some comments that were said today...

To be "a rep".

A rep. A Sales Representative. Sounds so denigrating, like one would be a lower life form. A rep. Might as well be a porter or busboy, or runner, or worker. A rep.

A wine sales representative, or wine consultant as we correctly refer to our fine folks at Indie as, is the top position in the wine industry. Really, you ask? Yes. Here's why...

1. For all the glam and press, and love, that wine buyers get none of that knowledge would be possible without reps. IE- the reps control the knowledge, the facts...or knowledge, which in wine is the tastings...And that is very powerful. It is the palates of the wine buyers.

2. The best reps literally sway mass buyer palates...and I can think of one such rep who eventually went West, but his opinion was (and still is) considered 'law' on taste for many.

3. Reps are the behind the curtains essential elements of the wine biz trade. Reps make it all happen. They are the waiters of the wine buyer world.

4. Reps help make wine buyer's beverage programs make money, which in turn makes their shops/restaurants money, which overall makes everyone very happy...and allows those businesses to stay in business.

5. Reps...as a job, live incredibly well. It takes a while for rep to get going, but once they do a rep can enjoy the following:

-A very nice salary

-Exotic travel

-All of their holidays OFF

-A lot of time spent with their families

-A lot of time working from home

-Rich, lasting relationships with their clients

-A scenario where they honestly never ever have to buy a bottle of wine in their life again

-And a very very very long list of etcetera benefits............................................................

To be a rep. Lowest man on the wine totem pole??....I think not.