Ya Know Free Rangers,
First, as always if you want to skip right to the wine deal, that’s two paragraphs down. Feel free. No offense taken… well, not much anyway. There’s some very serious Chard down there, at the lowest price in the world.
Now, this one has been eating at me for a while. There’s a couple who live next door to the shop, who I won’t name as it won’t benefit the story, though apparently they couldn’t possibly hate me any more as it is. So let’s just call them Mom & Dad. Mom was a customer before she was a mom, and I believe even before she was with the fella who became Dad- at least they weren’t living together back then. She was a semi-regular at the shop, and was always kind to us, and we had a nice report (shared the occasional drink together), as we did with Dad, when they started coming in together. Eventually they did become Mom and Dad, we lost Mom as a customer for about 9 months (which happens fairly frequently around here), and then eventually the kids got bigger and more mobile. And I genuinely don’t know if they are those typically nevertell your kids no type folks, or if they just think it’s okay to let them do whatever they want in public, regardless of how much work that causes to local small businesses. But given the number of times I’ve had to ask them to please not let the kids mess up our chalk boards, which we then have to expend the effort to correct, I did so reasonably politely (most of the time). Given the physical proximity of our front doors, we still have to see each other fairly regularly, which is kind of a bummer, as they no longer respond when I say hello, nor acknowledge my existence when we’re standing sixteen inches apart. This became strikingly apparent a few weeks back when Mom came home alone, saw that I was standing there closing up the shop and rolling down the steel shutters, acutely averted her gaze, buried her head in herself, and then nervously dropped her keys at her feet as if she was trying to get away from a stalker in the opening scene of a bad TV police drama. All I said was, “Hey, how’s it going?” Usually, when I’ve become the bad guy, I know what I’ve done and it was often deliberate. This one hurts more because I was genuinely fond of the couple, and I really was trying to tread lightly where their kids were concerned.
Since neither one of them will speak to me, and given when that started, I have to extrapolate that the final infraction occurred when I- calmly and politely- asked Dad not to let the kids scribble sidewall chalk on the two squares of concrete directly in front of the shop. It was a sunny afternoon when Dad, his kids, a friend, and their kids were entertaining themselves in the space between the shop and the covered outdoor space of Absolute Coffee next door (as if Brooklyn isn’t loaded with parks where this sort of thing would be quite a bit more appropriate). After the squares closest to the street were completely scribbled up- one literally with just one color in fist, large circles over large circles- and one of the two squares closest to the shop’s front door was just beginning to get a similar treatment, I calmly and politely asked they stay toward the font side of the sidewalk, as our shop only sells alcohol and isn’t really congruent with children’s chalk drawings. Even though a please and thank you bookended my request, the looks on the adults faces seemed as if I had said, “I hate you and your children and you need to leave now and never come back,” and they stormed off without a word. I get that it takes a village to raise a child, but if you can’t find a reasonable middle ground with local business owners, who just may be having their own troubles, maybe find another village to desecrate. I get that having kids is hard, but so is keeping a small business alive in modern America, and we don’t insist that young parents come by to pick up any of our slack. We just ask please don’t make our lives any harder either. And if you two still get our e-mails (which I wouldn’t bet on at this point), I’d still gladly pour you a drink, and do my best to make amends.
On a more positive note, Derek picked up a rare and beautiful CA Chard from the Santa Cruz Mountains that competes with White Burgundy twice (or thrice) its price.
It’s no secret that we love Chardonnay here at Free Range. It was very likely this bias that caused us to impulse buy a few too many cases to get the best possible price on this tiny production, absolutely delicious crisp white. So now we can share more of this fantastic wine with you, at the lowest price on Earth!
The Madson Chard is grown in the Santa Cruz Mountains, California, a stunning oceanside location that naturally imparts qualities of its cool oceanic climate and the salinity of its gentle breeze into the grapes. It’s a chardonnay less about oak, and more about crisp mineral-driven acidity with notes of forest floor, honeydew melon, apricot, and herbacious, savory umami undertones. Overall it’s quite a bit more restrained and elegant than what most would expect from California Card, and much closer to what you think of when shopping for Burgundy (but significantly less expensive). This wine is quite limited, exclusive to just a small handful of discriminating retailers, and is likely the only opportunity you may have to sample and appreciate such a unique and successful take on American Chardonnay. This week only we are pleased to share the deep discount we got from aforementioned bulk purchase, and are offering them at significantly below list price.
Jack’s quick ’n’ dirty tasting notes: Zippy acidity but great balance. Equally as suited to pre/post-meal quaffing as it is versatile along side your dinner foodstuffs. It paired swimmingly with both oysters and tuna tartare at French Louie (though it’s not on the wine list over there). This is the perfect challenge bottle for the (often ill-informed) “I hate Chardonnay” crowd.
100% organic / 100% carbon-neutral production
(!) Click here for hidden sale page (!)
Regular Price: $36
Sale!
1-2 btls: $32 each
3-5 btls: $29 each
6+ btls: $24 each
*** Online exclusive! ***
*** This week only! ***
Cheers,
Jack
Proprietor
Free Range Wine & Spirits
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