[wine] Business ethics and 2008 smoke

Dear friends, Amid the constant drumbeat of sleazy and outright criminal business practices, here’s a breath of fresh air: Followers of the California wine scene know that more than 500 forest and brush fires punctuated the 2008 growing season. Grapes grown in a smoky atmosphere produce smoky-tasting wines to a greater or lesser degree. Few areas of California were free of brush fires in 2008, but Mendocino County and the Sonoma Coast were most strongly affected. The Anderson Valley, in western Mendocino, was especially hard hit. Pinot noir, which can translate into the bottle every nuance of soil, climate and viticulture, is and was the grape most vulnerable to smoke influence. Considerably more detail can be found at www.princeofpinot.com/article/906/ . Reactions to the 2008 pinot noirs that show smoke character (I won’t say “flaw” or “taint,” since not everyone regards it as such) have been wildly varied, with some tasters finding the wines undrinkable eau de cigar ash, and others finding them fascinatingly complex. People differ in their detection thresholds for, and reactions to, smoky aromas and flavors in wine; the 2008 pinots are especially polarizing in this regard. Navarro Vineyards, a family-owned winery based in the Anderson Valley, makes one of California’s great wines: their flagship pinot noir, the Deep End Blend. (The “deep end” is Anderson Valley argot for the most oceanward, therefore coolest, part of the valley.) Navarro sells most of the Deep End Blend to their mailing list as futures, the summer after the vintage, roughly six months before the wine is bottled and a year before it’s released. Typical futures price is around a third off full retail. I’ve been buying Navarro Deep End Blend futures for some time, including the 2008. So, they’ve had their customers’ money (including mine) for the 2008 since last summer. Faced with the probability that some customers will be disappointed whereas others will like the wine just fine, Navarro has made its customers the following offer: 1. Here’s a FREE bottle of 2008 Deep End Blend. (I received mine yesterday.) Try it between now and August 15 and see how you like it. 2. If you like the 2008, we’ll ship you the amount you ordered, or more if you want more, at roughly 25% off the previously announced futures price. 3. If you don’t like the 2008, we’ll give you a full refund of what you paid for it; OR we’ll switch your 2008 futures order to vintage 2009; OR we’ll send you the same number of bottles of the (fabulous, incidentally) 2007 as a substitute for the 2008. All I’ve got to say is that the Navarro people weren’t paying attention at MBA school when they got taught that “business ethics” is an oxymoron used only to describe long-obsolete commercial practices. Best regards, Russ