Sunday, December 12, 2010

Come on Tomas, come out and see us!

I had a run in with the Bridgestone Guide a number of years ago, when they had included us in their guide, but descibed us as "an offshoot of the Cabot empire". Now I am happy and proud that Liam and myself continue to work well together, importing wines, sharing expertise and information and generally working very closely with each other, but I had to let the Bridgestone people know that Cabot and Co and On the Grapevine are very much separate entities and both operations very much stand on their own two feet. The bottom line was that Bridgestone had never set foot in the shop, so how they were in any way placed to include us remains a mystery. I was amazed at the lack of research in a guide that deems itself to be an expert on all things gastronomic. If they were recommending us, but had no idea what we were like, on what basis do their other recommendations stand? The upshot of it was that I politely asked them just to leave us out of the guide altogether.

Now, Tomas Clancy, I have met you on numerous occasions over our 12 years in business and you keep saying you must come out to visit us, but we still haven't seen you. Dalkey is not that far away, so hop on a dart and we will be glad to see you. We might even open something interesting for you. Then, feel free to exclude us from your various top ten listing as per today's paper!

By the way, the only gripe I would have with the lists is Tesco as the number 1 in multiples. Not sure about that - I know they have a big market share as a result of their bogus half-price promos, but surely Superquinn have a better range? Just sayin'.....

Now back to packing shelves.

1 comment:

Will said...

Although I don't believe in buying wine from supermarkets, I think Tesco has probably the best supermarket wine selection in Ireland. Superquinn were certainly better 4/5 years ago but they have disimproved whilst Tesco have improved. In saying all of this, all but the best Tescos have a crap selection in wine.