With the closure of Napa's one decent wine shop imminent, J V Wine & Spirits, the availability of any wines in Napa other than local wines will be severely limited. I mean, where will I now get my supply of Inama Soave and other Italian, and Spanish, wines? The wine selection in the local Whole Foods store is OK, but I really don't feel like paying Whole Foods prices, commonly referred to as Whole Pay-Cheque, all the time. I admit, I've been a bit spoiled by taking advantage of the generous inter-winery discounts that local wineries extend to industry personnel and I buy a lot of wine directly from the producers.
With the wine-retail experience on my mind, I stopped off at Thud's local Majestic Wine Warehouse today to have a peek at what they had to offer. Majestic is the UK's biggest wine retailer that specialises in selling mixed wines by the case, or the half-case. Seeing as I didn't want to buy six bottles of wine I left without purchasing anything, but I did have a chat to a very well informed assistant who seemed to know his stuff - and was a little impressed with the fact that I worked at a winery in the Napa Valley. The selection was fair, the prices seemed reasonable and the assortment of California wines was slim - as expected (although a Stag's Leap Wine Cellars 2009 Karia Chardonnay was a bit of a surprise). With Majestic close by, and also a branch of the Cork's Out chain, and the wine departments in supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainsbury's, Thud has a larger choice of outlets at which to procure wine than I do. Surely there's something wrong with this picture.
