Calling All Wine Librarians

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shopping experience: Sam’s Wine & Spirits

tasting notes

I was doing some research to write an entry about my experience at Sam’s Wine & Spirits in Chicago, when I stumbled upon a great article written by The Curious Shopper. It actually changed my perspective on what to write for this entry, as I came to realize that apparently one person’s wine shop heaven is another’s wine shop hell.

I can see why Sam’s would be the most intimidating place in the world for a certain type of wine shopper. The vast warehouse space, the high ceilings, the never ending aisles (5 aisles alone dedicated to French wines):

A few years ago, this would have been my wine shop nightmare as well. But I guess I have become more and more of a “wine smarty”, and this was a little slice of paradise for me, a place I could spend hours wandering around in. Sure it was intimidating, but for a person that knows quite a bit about wine without being an expert, it was perfect.

There was enough to get me exploring, I wandered around the French aisles, where they actually had maps of the towns I will be visiting above the racks dedicated to those wines. And once I got done exploring on my own, and was set on “finding”, they had experts from every geography wandering up and down the aisles. Our Italy guide took us as far as she could, before passing us off to the French guide, the Spanish guide, the Australian guide and so on. I respect that, because it is like you have little boutique stores rolled into one big warehouse. We were able to get those special picks from all over the world.

But this entry isn’t meant to praise Sam’s, as I think that The Curious Shopper brings up a good point about the way wines are organized and how it doesn’t work for her and probably the majority of shoppers. Maybe even as recently as last year, I would have agreed whole-heartedly with her suggested “organizational schema”, this idea that price comes first, then varietal. Not so long ago, I was absolutely and utterly confused about the way most stores chose to arrange their shop, it seemed like there was no rhyme or reason.

The more I’ve learn about wine, the more I’ve come to understand the complexity of wine store organization. Regions are the primary separation, it really is the best way to start. The world would be a confusing place if you tried to organize by varietal. Sure there are Chardonnays (aka “White Burgundy”) in France, but they are so drastically different than the Chardonnays of California that it wouldn’t make sense to put them next to each other. At the same time, Bordeaux wine is a specific government enforced blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon that has a rich history, reputation, and price tag that wouldn’t make sense placed next to any “red blend”. Then you get to countries like Italy where varietal has almost little to no importance at all, as one man’s Chianti is made with purely Sangiovese grapes, while another is a blend, and Sangiovese can be used to produce your basic table wines, as well as the iconic Brunello di Montalcino.

But someone like The Curious Shopper shouldn’t have to have that learning curve to enjoy shopping for wine. Part of it is her friends fault, as they should have sent her to a store more like Best Cellars, where it is specially selected awesome wines under $20 sorted by flavor profile. There is no reason that a person who doesn’t really care about what region they are buying wine from, so long is it is good, should ever go into a warehouse sized store.

Yet, I will be the first to admit that even with my newly acquired knowledge of French and Italian wines, I still get confused, and ultimately frustrated when I am looking for something and want the way I’m looking for it to make a little more sense. The truth of the matter is that people shop in different ways, and big wine stores like Sam’s need to cater to a diverse audience. There needs to be a code, and then there needs to be a tool to use that code. Why isn’t there some consistent form of wine organization, like the Dewey Decimal system? Sure, the basics are there: new world wines by varietal, old world wines by region and subregion. But beyond that, no system. It’s not alphabetical so far as I can tell. Not that it would make a difference with the European labels that are so confusing anyway. I guess the lower shelf ones are lower priced and the higher shelf, but not always, and what if you don’t have shelves?

Wine shopping should be like going into any Borders. You should be able to search via computer the way you want to (taste, price, food pairing), get a bin number, and print out a list. How hard would that be? They already have all the wine entered into the system. We could still have the wine experts wandering around, tasting stations, and end caps with featured products. But those should be added bonus, not necessary navigational tools. People want to feel self-sufficient, people want to feel knowledgeable. And as of right now, I am going 100% agree with The Curious Shopper, the current system just doesn’t work, and people are probably just too intimidated to say so.

suggested pairings

• Hilarious bit with Conan O’Brien and Gary Vaynerchuk, a wine expert trying to help make wine more accessible and less intimidating
• Yelp entry for Sam’s Wine & Spirits
• Review of Sam’s similarly confusing online shopping experience