Where did summer go? Each year, it seems to get shorter. Fall is in the air, and also starting its display in the maples. With fall, Windham Wines begins its seasonal transition away from summer whites and rosés, back to winter whites and reds. The team has continued to taste, exploring producers new to our distributors (e.g., Peay Vineyards in Sonoma and Tselepos in the Peloponnesian Peninsula) and regions or countries newly available to us (for instance, Calabria, Georgia and Croatia). New wines arrive weekly. If you have not been in for awhile, you’ll find lots to explore.
Fall also marks the return of our virtual tastings. Over the past 2+ years, we have discovered that virtual tastings allow us to achieve more of the objectives for which we started tastings.
- Firstly, they give you, our customer-friends, the opportunity to taste a broad range of wines. We don’t have to write about the wines in superlatives; you taste them yourselves and know whether or not you like them well enough to include as part of your rotation.
- Secondly, they provide a direct connection between Windham Wines, our customer-friends, and the winemaker-owners of the wines we carry. The virtual tastings began as a way to connect with our winemaker friends during the pandemic. We checked in first with those who have done in-person tastings with us. We learned about the challenges they were confronting and the uncertainty with which they lived. We left these conversations feeling connected to these men and women who expressed such gratitude to hear that their wines were being enjoyed by people thousands of miles away.
- Thirdly, by tasting only two, or occasionally three, wines together, we are able to meet more winemakers who otherwise would not come through for an in-person tasting. When an importer brings in only two or three wines from a producer, it is not worth a trip for the producer to come to the US to promote those 2-3 wines. We have had wonderful, lively, informative tastings with a Tasmanian producer (Holm Oak) that exports only 2 wines to the US and a Mallorcan producer with only two wines imported (Mesquido Mora).
- Fourthly, we never have to worry about weather conditions or about anyone drinking and driving!
We resume our virtual tastings on October 1st with Ines Giovanett, of Weingut Castelfeder in Südtirol/Alto Adige. We’ll visit Provence on October 22nd, tasting Cotes-du- Rhone with Vincent Tramier of Coste Chaude in Visan. We return stateside In November in anticipation of Thanksgiving. Mel Goldman, owner of Keuka Lake Vineyards in the Finger Lakes will share his story and his humor as we taste some of his outstanding wine.
Windham Wines remains committed to searching out wines that we believe have value to you. Our goal is to provide you with a selection of wines that you find satisfying, and with service that reflects how much we value your support. You are our raison d’etre. Thank you.