Otto's Protest Pays Off

So the New York State legislature came out on the right side of things over the weekend and decided that supermarkets selling wine was not a good idea. While good news to all wine lovers and their agents (local wine merchants), it was perilously close to going the other way - and by other way, I mean wine being turned into a commodity, stripped of personality and nuance. We as country continue a lock-step march towards banality as the masses continue to dope themselves up on fast food, fried snacks and now Red Bull. Putting wine in supermarkets would have lowered the bar for wine consumption and undoubtedly hurt liquor stores and wine stores. For many it would have been a critical blow - not to be recovered from - and leaving a gaping wound of yet another empty retail space with nothing capable of capturing enough public interest to be viable. Let's face it, the boutique store is a very endangered species right now and there are lots of lovely boutique wine shops filled with lovely wine connoisseurs waiting to help you pick out that perfect bottle to accentuate and elevate your evening. Picture that same wine in the supermarket - the gallon price tacked to the shelf edge leaving you to do the math on your 750 ml bottle - how much is this? So you ask Brittney, who's stocking the shelves, if she knows the price. She tells you that she only knows that a six pack of Mikes Hard Lemonade is $8.50 and tastes amazing. You're on your own with the wine. Thank God Brittney's not my new wine go-to-gal.