How far will you go to get La Gramière?

I received this email the other day from some wonderful people who I met last year.  We spent a great day winetasting together and have kept in touch through the blog.  Here's what Marianne Levenson went through to get a case of La Gramière in South Carolina!  I can't thank her enough! How very flattering... Cheers to all of the wonderful people in their group!

Happy New Year Amy!

Well, after a lot of phone calls and effort, a case of Domaine de la Gramiere arrived today.

I started trying to get a case after you posted on your blog to contact "your Kermit Lynch distributor". Well, there is one in Charleston, SC.   After several phone calls to them, a salesman finally called me back to inform me that they would not be adding any new wines until after the first of the year.  I told him I didn't need him to add any new wines, only to get me just one case of your wine.  Well, that fell on deaf ears!

So then I contacted Nick at Boulder Wine and Spirits.  He was very nice, but told me that he could not ship to SC.  So I asked him about Tennessee (where my parents live) or NC since we are only about 15 miles from the state line.  Well all of these states seem to be problems.  So he asked me if I knew anyone in Boulder.  He said that he could pack it for shipping and then they could pick it up and take it to UPS as a private shipper and ship it to me.  Well, I was in luck, a friend's daughter lives in Ft.  Collins and her fiance works in Boulder.  I contacted them and they were willing.

They picked it up and took it to UPS.  When UPS asked about the contents of the package, they innocently told them wine, at which time they were told that you can't ship wine to SC.  I am patiently waiting here for my case of wine so that I can give it as Christmas presents to our France travelling companions and other friends.  When the 22nd rolls around and I still have no wine, I call my friend's daughter who casually says, "Oh, I guess I should have called you to tell you what was going on and now it is in my car which is buried under 3 feet of snow."  At that point I could have cried.  But on Dec 26 I received an email from her that she had taken the package back to UPS ( I don't know what she told them was in the package) and it was on its way!!  And it arrived today.  I had hoped that it might miraculously arrive prior to New Year's Eve as we were getting together with the other couples and a few more and then we could take a picture with all of us enjoying our Cotes du Rhone, but that will have to wait a few weeks as the Ellises left today for Egypt!

We had to take our new dog to obedience classes tonight, so we weren't able to open a bottle and enjoy it.  But we will open a bottle one night this week for sure.

Oh, by the way, I downloaded a picture of your rose from your blog and copied it to give as IOU's for Christmas presents!!

I hope that you have a Happy and Prosperous 2007!! Keep on blogging I enjoy following your progress!

Best wishes,

Marianne Levenson

Conway, SC

Comments

[Tim Stephens]

Sounds familiar to this Marylander. Those Boulder folks sure are accommodating!

I had business in Colorado Springs and was planning to pick up some ddLG at the Liquor Mart in Boulder while visiting my brother. Just another piece of checked baggage I figured...

My timing was off by a week as the containers had just come off the ship and the truck bound for Colorado was still in transit. Being the good brother that he is, he volunteered to buy the wine for me and ship it to me in MD upon arrival. Merry Christmas! Long story short, he too found out that shipping wine is a no-no for a variety of reasons and he too was able to work around the problem somehow... (Don't ask, don't tell.) :-)

We amateurs and hobbyists have always been advised that, when shipping wine for judging and analysis, that the contents of the box be labeled "Food items for laboratory analysis". It's truthful and obeys the spirit of the law, if not the letter, since we're not actually buying or selling the wine. I've never had a package questioned...

Now I just need to find a way to thank him for his thoughtful "gift"... ;-)

I think I'll let my bottles rest a couple-three months and put themselves back together before I pop a cork. Or until my will gets weak... :-)

Tim