| Hey Free Rangers, Sorry about that glitch in the Matrix. I’m really trying to get better at sending these notes out on Sunday/Monday. We’ll see how long that actually lasts, but wanted you to know that concerted effort is currently going toward such consistency. It’s a weird semi-soft Swiss cheese incarnation of the usual Holiday Quickening we generally start to feel around this time of year (or at least we did in the Before Time). We’ve recently seen the starkest rise in people coming into the shop, hanging out, and leaving with nothing, since the onset of the pandemic. Generally our numbers are trending upward, which is certainly positive, but with all of the no-buys, our work per dollar quotient is off the charts these days. And it’s not just the whiskey hunters staring at bottles, demanding price quotes on items they have no intent to purchase, and telling us they’ve tasted our Elijah Craig Small Batch elsewhere that we just finished explaining is an Elijah Craig 10 Year Single Barrel that is not available anywhere else in the world. We’re more than happy to talk all day with someone genuinely trying to find the right bottle for a particular occasion, at any price, so long as there’s an honest conversation occurring. But anyone who says, “there are no stupid questions,” has clearly never worked retail. There’s this great New Yorker cartoon (which has been sent to me many times) in which a customer is standing in a wine shop and says, “I don’t remember the name, but it had a taste that I liked.” We are forced to respond to this notion in real time quite regularly. No matter how long I do this, it continues to amaze me how many people walk into a shop the size of ours, looking for one product in the world. Even more arresting is the percentage of those folks who are missing most or all guide pegs required to locate it. A woman comes in, tells Derek that she thinks she bought a sherry here two or three years ago, and is pretty sure she’d recognize the label if she saw it, but she doesn’t know the name, and can’t tell us if it was dry or sweet. No, she’s not in the system so we can’t look up her purchase history. After 15 minutes of aimlessness, and no attempt or interest to talk through the sherries that we have (very few of which have changed in the last couple of years), she leaves with nothing. Hey, at least she was looking for something that she once purchased in this location (she thinks). So, this was a new one: An older fellow comes in asking for Ron Zacapa Rum Edicion Negra, which is the more expensive expression from the same producer as our long-time staple, Zacapa Solera 23. You see, he once found one in a shop, four or five years ago, for a few dollars less than the regular Zacapa Solera (clearly a mis-marked item that he’ll never see again). But this information had to be extracted, as he initially asked if we would special order him a bottle. “Special order?” I asked to clarify, “You should be able to find that bottle around, it’s readily available, and a single bottle special ordered will cost more than usual, as the wholesale price is higher on a single bottle than a case, plus they hit you with a case breaking fee.” So I asked him if he couldn’t find it anywhere else, and I suggest a few bigger stores that I’m fairly sure carry it. It turns out that he sees it all the time, but is only interested in it at the (wrong) price that the once found. I look it up and tell him that the rum he’s seeking costs $19 more per bottle at wholesale than the one we have and that nobody is going to deliberately sell it to him at a loss. “Okay,” he says, “I’ll keep looking,” and leaves with nothing. It’s been a long week. Had to get some solid bitching in before Thanksgiving. Cheers for listening. And if you skipped ahead, please enjoy the whiskey sale anyway. We try to alternate deals between wine and whiskey as regularly as we can, but timing has again given us the gift of whiskey, both local and very rare. Anyone who’s ever talked a little local brown spirits with me knows well that I believe Brad Estabrooke at Breuckelen Distilling to be turning out the highest quality per dollar bottles of properly aged grain spirits in our fine borough. While we always carry a number of regular and limited release Breuckelen Whiskeys (as well as their Glorious Gin), they’ve just released 6 very limited age-statement whiskeys that represent unprecedented value in local whiskey. They are delicious, exceedingly rare, and damned good looking bottles. At $69 to $89 these 6 to 8 year whiskeys are priced similarly to Van Brunt Still House’s 2 to 4 year whiskeys, and significantly below Kings County’s recent releases of similar age. No shade on those other fine local distillers with whom we’ve worked for many years, just sayin’ that Breuckelen represents unusual value in the market, amongst very few peers of similarly aged barrels. Below are the 6 new Breuckelen releases, available this week only at 10% off, 15% off any 2+ bottles. Full disclosure: after this sale, when stocks dwindle, prices will increase sharply. (!) Click here for the hidden sale page (!) Breuckelen 77 ‘The New York’ Wheat 8yr Breuckelen 77 Single Malt New Charred Oak 6yr Breuckelen 77 Single Malt Bourbon Cask Finish 7yr Breuckelen 77 Single Malt Port Cask 7yr Breuckelen 77 Single Malt Port Cask 7yr Cask Strength Breuckelen 77 Single Barrel Wheated Bourbon 8yr Cask Strength *** This week only, as supplies last! *** *** No other discounts apply! *** Until next time, Jack Proprietor Free Range Wine & Spirits P.S. Free Range E-mail Archive |
