Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/326040
june 2014 / the tasting panel / 49 OK, so wine, wine and more wine. But there is the cuisine and I know you both well enough to understand your passion for great dining. Was it a battle for you to decide when you planned Les Marchands, or did you have something definite in mind? Eric: Well, it's definitely evolved since we opened. One of the reasons we chose this region was the incredible access to farm-fresh products. Actually, we chose to replicate a small bar in Paris called The Creamery. But we've continued to change. We feature a lot of wine dinners. Since we love Riesling, every Friday night we feature a different ramen to pair with it. Every week we change, so coming next week it's Austrian wine and cuisine. Let's drink to that! Today we're sipping a superb wine from the Côte Chalonnaise—the Faiveley 2010 Mercurey Clos des Myglands, a great vintage. Is the commune getting the love it deserves? Eric: Now more than ever, especially with current pricing in Burgundy. A lot of people who don't want to spend $200 to $300 a bottle are looking to the lesser known regions for Pinot Noir. Brian: To Eric's point, it's really tough right now to get a Burgundy that you can pour by the glass. Eric: Faiveley is really doing nice work right now. This wine is high quality and a good value. They're getting harder to find! I look around and see all these small- producer, hand-crafted wines. So let me put you on the spot: Are spirits next? Brian: Eric and I both feel that at the retail level we have to be experts on what we are selling. And the craft spirits industry is really just getting warmed up. We have the license, but we want to make sure that we have a total under- standing of the category before we take the plunge. Eric and I really want to focus on depth rather than breadth. So, your clientele: It must be hugely local. Eric: It is. But the movie really helped, and we've gotten great Los Angeles area and national press. So we do have customers coming in from outside the area, and it's growing. We have a distillery across the street that doesn't have a sales license, so we sell their products and get a fair number of visits from their friends. What's on the horizon for you? What's the next best thing? Brian: Santa Barbara County! There is so much raw potential here. It's a good opportunity for us to be able to introduce customers to so many great wines they haven't had before from this region. When you hear Napa you think wine. When you hear Santa Barbara you think palm trees. We have work to do. I think this may be one of the few retail operations I've seen where there are no shelf talkers or points ratings. All I see are very cool wines with a grease pencil prices on the front of them. Are people OK with that? Eric: I think the wine writers are shifting on that program. We are a hands-on retailer and want to keep that personal touch. If you put the points out, there it's the end of the dialogue, and that's what we enjoy most. I believe that our patrons do as well, they keep coming back. We're especially proud of our staff and their commitment to education, tast- ing and customer service. Brian: These wines are like our adopted children. They're the winemaker's babies, but we have to take care of them. Here come the wine salespeople. This must be a really fun day for them. What percentage of them do you really have time for? Eric: We don't have as many as the buyers in major cities have to see. We go to the big portfolio tastings in S.F. or L.A. once a quarter. I think that our local salesforces find it intimidating here. But just bring us something interesting and we'll try to find time. What is your dream to change the world of wine in its current state? Eric: I would like more openness and clarity in labeling. I would really like to have ingredient labeling on all wine bottles. I think it would change a lot of things in the way many wines are made. Brian: I think that when you look at the great producers of the world they work with one or two grape varieties exclu- sively. I would like the hyper focus of our best winemakers on one variety for 20 years. TP0614_034-71.indd 49 5/23/14 9:23 PM