| Hey Free Rangers, Still plugging away here, keeping the shelves stocked (and the bills paid), and making sure everybody on both sides of the counter remains as safe as possible, while we do our best to maintain sufficient neighborhood lubrication, during these trying times. While there are several vaccines on the horizon, the infection rates are rising again, and hospitals in many parts of the country are overwhelmed, and many cities are returning to shutdown conditions. We are guessing this will be the case here in NYC again sometime soon, and we’re keeping ourselves up to date on current and impending local guidelines. Continued thanks to the vast majority of you who help us keep things running reasonably smoothly here, by modern standards. However, the exceptions continue to darken the rule(s). A customer who didn’t want help picked up 6 bottles in a row, while wandering back and forth, taking up a lot of space, and his sweet time. Pretty sure I recognized him as a previous customer, but it can be hard to tell with only a third of the face from which to recall. In as generous a tone as I can muster these days, I said, “I’d appreciate it if you’d ask more questions, and handle fewer bottles. There’s still a global pandemic going on.” He complied and everything seemed fine, though he still had no interest in help narrowing his selection. I fully get that some people are going to push back regardless of how they’re addressed, just to have a retort to having been asked to alter their behavior at all, and this seemed to be the case, with a bit of a delayed reaction. A few minutes later, the same guy finally wanted to talk to me, to tell me that he completely understands the not touching bottles thing, but he really wanted me to know that he found it completely unnecessary to add the qualifier about the pandemic. “And if I hadn’t,” I started, checking my volume, “you might have been upset that I didn’t give a reason. 10 months into a global pandemic, we’re doing the best we can,” and I went back to stocking bottles. Entitlement dictated that he get the last word, “Just giving you my feedback.” That he believed this was a hair worth splitting speaks volumes. I rest my case, your honor. Who am I kidding? I can’t leave it at that. “While we’re being all feedback-y here, little guy, if you understood implicitly the reason why one shouldn’t be touching bottles, then you wouldn’t have been repeatedly laying hands on inventory, and we wouldn’t be having this conversation in the first place. No?” I don’t take this kind of entitlement personally anymore, it’s just so exhausting. So when we can’t quite handle the weight of the next shutdown, and move to online/pick-up only policies, you can blame this particular variety of exhaustion. Until then, we’ll be slinging booze daily, here at street level. Speaking of which… Regular readers here are likely quite familiar with our love of Oregon Pinot Noir, and the fabulous value to be found, specifically, under the Brittan label. Since last release, they’ve elevated their Basalt Vineyard bottling to single vineyard pricing, and added a new Estate bottling, at their intro level price. Brittan Estate Pinot Noir 2017 is sourced predominantly from that same Basalt Vineyard, but contains small amounts of juice from their other fields, and in the future the Estate blend could theoretically be from any grapes grown on the property, a truly prime piece of the McMinnville AVA. The 2017 vintage was another in a string of banner growing seasons for much of Willamette Valley, OR, and the juice from which generally shows a touch lighter and fresher than those deep, brooding 2016s. This Brittan Estate Pinot Noir 2017 is drinking quite well at this very moment (cheers!), but will also age gracefully for at least 4-6 years, if you feel like hiding a bottle or two from yourself. This new Estate bottling is a bit less concentrated than the Basalt, but the quality is what we’ve come to exepct from these folks. See below for the tiered offer, the 6-pack includes a FREE wine tote and a FREE bottle from my personal collection (which could be literally anything)! (!) Click here for the hidden offer page (!) Brittan Estate Pinot Noir 2017 sale: $35 retail: 6-pack Brittan Estate Pinot Noir 2017 + FREE BOTTLE from my personal collection (+ free wine tote)! sale: $174 ($29/btl) retail: $ ** This week only, as supplies last! ** * No other discounts apply.* Cheers, Jack Proprietor Free Range Wine & Spirits P.S. Free Range E-mail Archive |
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