BoozeReviews.net

Steve,

Wow, I had no idea anyone was even reading our blog.

First off, we are not to be taken seriously. It says so all over our site. Do you know what the most popular search term used to find this site is?  It’s “Beer Farts.”  Really.  I shit you not.  That’s straight out of my Woopra stats report for today.  Today, 3 people queried “Beer farts, types of” at Google and got search results that led them here.  I hope you’re marveling at the fact that someone — 3 people (!)– had that kind of free time on their hands.  The boozereviews.net blog is nothing more than a forum in which a few friends/family who live far apart try to make each other laugh while keeping some semblance of a catalog of wine and beer that we’ve enjoyed. Apparently it’s now been found… which sort of takes the fun out of it.

Pertaining to your blog piece from 2/9/09, I feel I need to make a couple of points here, in rebuttal:

1.
The purpose and subject of my “Why You Shouldn’t Shop at BevMo” blog post at boozereviews.net was not whether or not Gary Farrell makes good Pinot.  You’ve taken me entirely out of context.  It was also not about whether Gary Farrell is a big or small winery.  I used the reference to GF wine to illustrate a very simple fact:  I had previously thought the winery was still a small boutique operation, so when I saw Gary Farrell wine at BevMo I was pleasantly surprised, thinking maybe they were sourcing some harder-to-find product like the knowledgeable owner of a small bottle shop might.  As you know, the winery is now part of a larger unit (I mistakenly used the word “conglomerate, which has a negative connotation, sorry.  I retract that)– which makes it less surprising that BevMo carries the brand.  BevMo buys in large quantities from distributors, so needs to source from larger-producers in order to meet demand for all their stores in a given region.  That’s all.  My post was a short one and probably didn’t do a good enough job of making that point as obvious as it needed to be.  But I do not assume that smaller=better; if you read on here, you will see that.  Invoking Gary Farrell was an aside in a larger story about…

2.
The benefits of supporting locally-owned businesses, when it pertains to the buying of alcohol.  Period.  You make the statement that BevMo is a local business if it opens in your hometown, whether or not it’s locally-owned.  That is the only flat-out wrong statement in both our posts.  Yes, a chain store will create jobs in your town– minimum wage jobs or close.  Yes, it will add some sales tax revenue to city coffers.  But the real money goes back to the corporate HQ.  Do your homework before you accuse me of not doing mine: one very prominent study shows that out of every $100 spent at a locally-owned business, $45 stays in the community.  That same $100 spent in a chain store leaves $13 circulating in the community (2002 Austin study by Civic Economics).  There are many other studies on this subject with similar numbers.  Illustrating this situation was the purpose of my original post.

3.
For the record– despite the fact that it’s irrelevant in the context of my original post–  I absolutely love Gary Farrell wines.  I visited the winery recently and purchased a fair quantity of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.  Excellent stuff.  I do not pretend that small production = high quality or that large production = low quality.  I only maintain that one has a better chance of finding rare items (and having fun doing it) when able to communicate directly with a concerned bottle shop owner, or when purchasing direct from the maker (when possible).  Have I shopped at BevMo?  Yes, online.  Will I do so again?  Yes, but not without trying to source the product from a locally-owned business or direct from the winemaker first.

4.
Despite all of this, I’ve removed my original post because it’s really not in the spirit of my website.  It’s too negative.  You’re attacking a guy who has a site dedicated to reviews, but has promised in several posts not to write another negative review unless the product is just a blatant rip-off:  an “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all” kind of review site.  When it comes to wine (I rarely do beer reviews here), I only review wines that I find interesting and can say positive (if crude and altogether useless) things about.  Wrap your brain around that for a second.   Also, if you’d have read any of the content on my site before reacting to that one post, you’d have noticed it’s a for-fun, very ridiculous project.  It’s not worth your time or your interest, really.  Trust me, I’ve done the research.

5.
I hope you can see the humor in all of this.  I think it’s an interesting and healthy discussion.  This is what blogs are all about– open commentary.  We likely have differences of opinion on the matter of BevMo, but those differences are bound together by a common love:  fine wine.  Cheers!

(6 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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