For my retail wine store analysis, I went to Michael Town Wines and Spirits on Clark Street in Brooklyn. The shop was only a ten-minute walk from school so, I stopped by around 11:30 on Thursday morning and asked to speak to a manager. The manager I spoke to was Buck. He has been the manager of Michael’s for four years which allowed him to answer many of my questions about the business. He said this is a very neighborhood oriented shop so, most of his customers are neighborhood regulars. Most of his customers are upper middle-class families. His clientele are big fans of chilled white wines such as New Zeeland Sauvignon Blancs, Italian Pinot Grigos, and California Chardonnays. Although these are still the biggest sellers, because of gentrification the neighborhood is starting to change. More dual income families are starting to move in with more adventurous palettes and are not drawn to the typical wines his regulars are.

Shelf Talker Simi from Alexander Valley in Sonoma County, California. Buck keeps a healthy supply of this wine on stock because the grapes used come from his families vineyard in California. The old vines help make a deep complex wine.

After discussing the wine shop and its customers I was interested in asking how he got into the wine business. Buck grew up around wine because he lived in California on a vineyard his family owned. He  mainly grew Cabernet Sauvignon on his vineyard to sell  to Alexander Valley in Sonoma County. To this day Buck keeps these bottles of wine in his shop. He feels it is an easy wine to sell to consumers because he personally knows about it and it is cheap. He said it has a black current fruit flavor with influence of the barrel. The vines are very old, from before prohibition, making the flavor of the wine very deep and concentrated.

Before concluding my interview with Buck, he took me around the shop and pointed out a couple of stand outs he keeps on the shelves. Buck introduced me to a really interesting

Schramsberg is a California Sparkling wine made using the traditional method.

sparkling wine made in California. This was a wine he grew up on and loved very much. The sparkling wine was called Schramsberg and was made using the traditional method. Next, he brought me to the French wines and showed me a wine by one of his favorite producers, Kermit Lynch. It is a rich and intense red wine

Bucks favorite producer Kermit Lynchs Pic Saint Loup. This is a really deep flavorful red wine from France.

made in Pic Saint Loup in France. Finally, I asked to be shown a region that is not well known for making wine. Buck showed me a small section of wines he had from South Africa. Both red and white wines are made in South Africa, but I was shown the Secateurs white. What was interesting about this wine was that it is made using reusable glass and reusable paper. All South African wines are made keeping sustainability in mind. I was given so much information about this wine that I ended up purchasing it before I left.

Secateurs is a South African white wine made from Chenin Blanc grapes.

I am really glad I got to speak to Buck about his job and experiences in the wine industry. I feel like I learned a lot and was able to use the knowledge from class in my conversation. Before leaving Buck left me with one last piece of advice, keep tasting and expanding my palette.