yeldarb

I think it's fitting that this thread has turned to reminiscing the Best of the Chairmans Selections... since it's almost assured that the CS program will be over soon, at least as we know it. Personally, I'll avail myself of these last lots Newman had a hand in picking, but then I'm DONE. I am inclined to boycott the State Stores in protest of Fast Eddie's bad decision. I guess it's back to asking my friends in NY to order wine for me, and making the occasional pilgrimage to Zachy's or Moore Bros. This whole thing just left a bad taste in my mouth, not unlike the expectation of finally opening a carefully cellared wine only to discover that it's past it's prime, you've waited too long, and it will only get worse. Thanks all for your educational comments and comeraderie. It was fun while it lasted.

This article in the Inky today about Newman was spot-on: http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/16399481.htm "As hard as Newman and his successors might try to soften its edges, the LCB system absolutely guarantees that we'll never see the kind of innovation now sweeping the wine business elsewhere. So my best career advice for the former chairman is this: Take your credibility in the industry and among wine consumers and use it to help us get rid of the LCB - once and for all." I couldn't have said it better myself.

This is a sad day for PA residents. Head of LCB quits after spat with Rendell http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/16374461.htm I lost a lot of respect for Rendell with this fiasco. The Conti appointment smacks of cronyism and I can't help but feel that the creating of the CEO position is all about continuing to milk the teat that is the Johnstown Flood tax. I am embarassed to live in PA. My friends in NY who get wide selection and competitive prices at Zachy's or one of the many fine wine stores in NYC are laughing at us again. We had a brief shining period where Mr. Newman brought PA some street cred and improved our image. Our system was beginnign to look like it wasn't run by a bunch of rubes. It looks like the fat cats win again, though, consumers be damned.

I hope this post isn't deleted, because it's extremely accurate, imho. I've lived in PA all my life but have the benefit of a friend who lives near Zachy's and numerous other wine stores that put even the best PA Wine & Spirits shops to shame. Don't get me wrong, I think Jon Newman has brought tremendous improvements... but while he deserves being lauded, let's keep in mind that what he started with was a pretty abysmal system. I'm sure the reason the LCB is not dismantled is that it brings in huge revenues to the state, and employs lots of people (some of whom are excellent wine consultants, but some of whom are shlubs with a 'government job' attitude.) Don't forget, we have that Johnstown flood to pay for... ;-) At least you can go buy a single bottle of wine, now even on Sundays in some places. I have an even bigger issue with PA's crazy 3-tier beer distribution system. I know this is a wine forum but since I also lvoe microbrews I can help but chime in on how stupid it is that I have to buy a whole CASE of something I want to try, when in neighboring states I can just buy a 2 or 3 bottles at a grocery store, or at most a six-pack. Yes there are bars in PA that sell six-packs, but they overcharge for the convenience and cater mostly to the Bud crowd anyway. I'd happily vote for someone (elephant or donkey) who promised real reform of PA's wine and beer regulations. At least it's an issue everyone can understand! (privatization of highways and bridges, anyone? http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06262/722995-147.stm)

One of these days every bottle is going to have an RFID tag on it, and the "system" (like the Borg) will know at any time where every single bottle is located. :-) I don't understand why the LCB doesn't pioneer such an inventory system. Wine retailing is an industry where matching customers with the products they want to buy is critical to sales. This process of guessing which stores are going to need which product, shipping it there and then waiting around to see who buys it... ludicrous! Certainly some store inventory is nice for browsing, etc. But for premium items, especially, it would seem a no-brainer to invest in a smarter inventory system that minimizes the time and distance from winery to customer.

oh well, it's back up.

What's the deal with the PLCB web site? Seems to be down, or else the URLs have changed yet again.

Where did you pick it up? I wasn't aware that any of the PLCBs '97 Nardi had come in yet. The site still shows early May arrival...

This sounds way cool (especially as I am a hopeless enophile!) Thanks much! B

Do you have an address or URL? I google "King of Thai" "San Francisco" but there are several seemingly different places. B

How about Thai? Or a good place for crabcakes? B

I am in San Francisco for Macworld (first time here.) Tonight I experienced "House of Nanking" on Kearny in Chinatown, food was good (the service a bit odd, although fun and ultimately valuable since they seem to prefer to serve you what they think you will like, versus ordering from the menu.) What else should we experience in the downtown area over the next four days? From reading a bit of this forum, I think Yank Sing should be high on our list for dim sum (lunch preferable to dinner?) Basically I'd liek recommendations for the downtown area, generally along Market Street, I think it's called SoMa, and around the Moscone Center, and Union Square area or Chinatown fine too. My friend says he might want some abalone. I've never had it but I understand it's not in season so only a select few super-expensive restaurants may have it from their own tanks. Really dunno much about that tho. Looking forward to suggestions. Thanks! B

Yes I'd like to get a heads-up, too, when this one starts shipping out. There have been some recent minor, but very nice, modifications to the Chairman's Selection "Now in Stores" list on the PLCB website. Each sku number is now clickable to do a quick search for inventory. This is very handy! Also the "content last modified" at the bottom lets you know how current the information is (very current!) Kudos to those responsible.

I could see you calling my opinion wrong, as is your right, but I don't quite get the logical misstep/fallacy you're accusing me of. Please explain. You're statement wasn't really an opinion, it was an IF/THEN logic statement. You pose that if anyone can place a web order, "What chance to I have of getting any anywhere?" Well, online is included in "anywhere", and you would have exactly the same chance as anyone else with a web browser. My point was that currently any given customer does not have an equal chance of obtaining a Chairman's Selection item (for example), since the distribution is so screwy. It's apaprently luck, or a lot of work driving around to various stores, which is absurd with the technology we have today. I certainly concede your point about "browsing" in the store and that it's nice to discover things you may not have known you wanted. However, given limited quantities, I would think the LCB would prefer to pre-sell ALL of a wine, rather than risk not selling some quantity because certain stores they blindly stocked didn't happen to get a shopper/browser like you to discover the wine. Anyway, there's an easy solution to prevent people from being a pig, LCB could simply limit quantities for pre-order, or not require full cases. As to your suggestion about asking the local manager for a bottle transfer, sometimes that works but often it doesn't. Depends on the manager, the staff, the transferring store and their staff, etc. I've found this to be unreliable and too time-consuming. Placing an pre-order online would take minutes. Jus my $0.02

This statement is illogical. You'd have exactly the same chance, that's the point (assuming you can use a web browser, a fine assumption since you're on egullet.org!) If you're concerned about a ticketmaster-like effect, then LCB could limit quantities, easy as that. The point is that it would be a more level playing field, and more efficient distribution, than the current "wait and see" method.

Yeldarb, Even though I live very close to the Newtown store and not too far from the Franklin Mills store, both of which typically receive plenty of the Chairman's Selections, I've noticed the online inventory doesn't always reflect their stock. The Il Futuro was a case in point. A week ago Monday I called the Newtown store, was told it wasn't in yet, and probably wouldn't be until Thursday, but to check online. The online inventory never included Newtown and when I went there on Saturday, I was told it arrived Tuesday (two days prior to expected delivery). They received 35 cases and it was going fast. ← Ah, so maybe it's not clever/sinister marketing like I implied... the LCB is just technologically incompetent? ;-) Perhaps PLCB should outsource inventory tracking and online sales. I bet Amazon would do it. (and I'm only half joking.)

Yes, of course I realize that one can search inventory and I do this all the time. However if you search for this one you'll see that only a dozen or so stores all show <10 each. In my experience these numbers are usually off, for reasons I don't know, perhaps just poor tracking or breakage or shrinkage or there are inventoried bottles in the store that are earmarked for people and not actually available for sale... many times I've seen some number X shown and then I call the store and they can't find any or they say the number is wrong, etc. When I've seen a large number like 50 or 150, then I can usually just go there and buy some. Anyway, I asked because I thought an "insider" who reads this forum may have a more accurate read on how many might actually be available for sale, generally, or if the word is that they're all basically gone. Since the LCB inventory data is not reliable (at the margin), and since more nuanced info isn't provided on their web site, and since most store employees are not helpful in this regard, I'm left to hope for a better answer here.

Deidre... you posted this just last week. I have been checking the inventories online at least once a week. Last week I know the 94 Burgess was not showing up anywhere, and was still on the "Upcoming Chairmans Selections" list. Today I see it's no longer on the Upcoming list, and it's also not in inventory (Product Catalog Search results in nothing.) Should I conclude that this item came in less than six days ago and was subsequently all sold out? I'm beginning to wonder if the Chairman's Selection program is intentionally engaging in a bit of excitement marketing, creating hype around sparse shipments and limited quantities. You know, people want iPods more when there aren't any available... I like wine, but it's a bit absurd that soley because of the design of the program, we have to hover around discussion boards like this one (not that there aren't lots of other great reasons to be here...) and constantly check the PLCB site for Chairman's Selection items and stock levels at stores in the area. Instead why not just offer online pre-ordering via pawineandspirits.com? Wouldn't it make more sense to send the wine where it's already sold, then to make guesses about how much each store will sell, ship to them, and then wait and see? This is 2005, not 1950. I order everything online, and backorder things that aren't currently in stock, etc. etc etc. It's not rocket science, and the state does have a monopoly and a big fat revenue stream with which to implement information technology.

You must be reading my mind Mike. Newtown got 35 cases today, I got 12 also, bottles that is. Also picked up some of the lovely Latour Mersault along with that nice St. Frances chard we had the other night at RX. Next for me is a few bottles of the ridiculously priced Chassagne Montrachet. Jeff ← Pop 'em open gents. Let's hear it. Still waiting here..... At Rx, Deidre told me the Il Futuro benefited from 2 hours of decant time when she drank it. Evan ← Is there much of the Il Futuro left anywhere? I feel like a second-class citizen, it seems the western and central part of the state got this first, then a few counties in eastern PA, but nothing near me (Quakertown, Lansdale, Allentown, Easton, etc) I really wanted to get some of this. I didn't see it available for order online either. RATS! I guess I should move to a snooty county.... ;-) Or be willing to drive farther.

Could you elaborate on what you did to "find the number on the website"? So you ordered something SLO, but the item had in fact been ordered sometime in the past by PLCB? If you found something that was previously ordered, yes, I could see how they should be able to handle such an order without making any mistakes. I was ordering an item that was apparently never before carried by PLCB. But that can be said of a lot of wines. There is a universe of wines out there... many great ones that PLCB has never ordered before. PA consumers should be able to order those as well. It's interesting to note that in my case, with Henry Estate, I could actually place an order online, directly with the winery, for three bottles and have them shipped UPS. Would take 5 minutes, be here in 3 days. Oh wait, I'M NOT ALLOWED BECAUSE I LIVE IN A STATE WITH CRAZY BOOZE LAWS. Worse, I fear legislators are too fond of the monopoly revenue stream to change the situation anytime soon. B

SLO (Special Liquor Order) is a disgrace. I wrote about this topic before, asking how the whole thing worked because frankly it's ridiculously confusing for the average wine customer in PA to try to buy something that's not already "stocked" by the PLCB. Contrast this to my longtime friend who lives in suburban NY where his neighborhood wine retailers (admittedly some of the best in the country) can order practically any wine from anywhere and get it in less than a week. Despite Mr. Newman's progress and the excellent Chairman's Selection program... PA still stinks for wine lovers. To illustrate my point, follow my story of a recent little experiment of mine. Sorry this is so long but the length only reinforces my point that customers should not have to go through all this. The SLO system needs a lot of work. My story starts in May (2005) when I learned about a little OR winery called Henry Estate. My 4-year old's name is Henry so I thought I'd try some of their recently released 2001 "Henry V" bordeaux blend. Some Googling revealed others who liked it and suggest it could be ageworthy. I could have asked my friend in NY to order this for me through his local store, but I thought I'd find out just how "enlightened" the PLCB had become with the SLO system. In May I posted to egullet to ask Diedre how SLO works. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...80entry931080 I got several helpful replies, all of which suggested SLO can be placed in the store or by calling the 800 number, and that calling was probably better for obscure wines not previously carried in inventory. Over the next few weeks I called the number several times and never once got a live person. I left two messages which were never returned. In June I emailed ra-lbslo@state.pa.us and didn't get an immediate response. Eventually I got a reply from a Jane Bailey asking for additional information. Several back-and-forth emails followed, with me repeating the specifics of the wine I wanted, including the URL of the winery website which should have made things 100% clear. http://www.henryestate.com/products.asp?type=iswine&id=69 Henry Estate 2001 Henry V On July 26 I finally got an email from Ms Bailey with a SKU/CODE 052800 and the phone number of the distributor/vendor so that I could call to confirm it was the right wine. (?) "215-443-0305 ask for Jeff." I was concerned because when I searched the PLCB website Product Catalog on code 052800 I got something called "HENRY ESTATE PINOT NOIR" (interestingly the description is now different, probably the result of my order.) Henry V is a bordeaux blend, not their Pinot Noir. I did call and the vendor claimed this was the right one, that "the description is often wrong in the LCB catalog". So in late August, armed with the Code and Vendor information, I visited the new Wine & Spirits premium store in Quakertown, and asked how I would place an SLO. I was directed to a managerial person (Patrick) who helpfully took my order for 3 bottles, and I paid my deposit. Weeks passed and no word. When I stopped in the store to ask about the status, I was told I would be called when it came in. Apparently the SLO system has no provision for checking status... so I suppose if an order gets lost, customers are just supposed to wait forever. TODAY (Sep 26) I received a call that there was a problem with the order. When I stopped in the store I was told they had mistakenly received only one bottle instead of the 3 that I ordered. The manager explained that he'd have to place a new order for 2 bottles, credit my original deposits, and charge me for the balance of the one bottle and a deposit for the 2 additional bottles. (?!?) While this accounting system nonsense was being sorted out, I opened the box and looked at the bottle, it was completely wrong! The bottle was 1998 (not 2001) Henry Estate Pinot Noir (not Henry V). So I left the store with the managers assurance that I would be refunded my deposit and that he would look into the matter to see what happened. I again gave him the proper name of the wine I want to order as well as the website information so that in case anyone at SLO was actually paying attention and interested in getting it right, all the information was there in front of them. My conclusion is that despite some of the excellent people who have helped me in my local Wine & Spirits stores ("Chris" who worked for a time at the Allen Forge store in Lansdale, PA was particularly helpful, but was transferred to another store) the SLO infrastructure is still the same old state government beaurocracy. Sorry for the long tirade. I'm sure many people have used SLO successfully... but someone needs to take a look at how they are doing things at the PLCB and how some processes like SLO can be modernized. The entire Product Catalog is weak, from a technological/database perspective. Take a loot at how sites like zachys.com handle the online presentation of their inventory.... beautiful, tons of information, sort and search all different ways... this is what the PLCB should be striving for! I should be able to order almost any wine online through the PLCB and have it delivered to my local Wine & Spirits store, without being subject to confused staff or long waits or exhorbitant shipping charges. I had hopes that the recent Supreme Court decision might have a positive effect on the ability of PA wine consumers to buy obscure wines from out of state, but that doesn't appear to be the case. At least not in any practical sense. Brad

Is there going to be a "grand opening" for the new Quakertown store, with tastings, etc? I stopped in about a week ago because I was in the area, and it turns out it was their FIRST day open, and there were still empty racks and boxes and boxes of bottles yet to be shelved. Looked like it will be a really nice store, however.

Hi Deidre, Could you explain how SLO works? I don't see much on the LCB web site other than this brief description To place an SLO order, e-mail ra-lbslo@state.pa.us or call 1-800-332-PLCB. Please include your daytime phone number in your e-mail, so that we may contact you to complete the order. (A deposit must be placed upon a credit card, and at this time we do not have a secure site to take these orders.) You had indicated in an earlier post that SLO are not actual LCB inventory, and as such pricing is not under LCB control. You also mentioned that some SLO items have minimum qty (e.g. 6 or 12 bottles.) Can you elaborate on the rules or point me to a web page? I am curious about a few specific SLO items I found listed in the online product catalog... Or is it best that I just call or email ra-lbslo? Thank you B

Anyone else try this one? Pretty good, but I see there are only a few of these left around the state Code: 013671 Description: VAN DUZER PINOT NOIR HOMESTEAD 02 Size: 750ML Price: $30.99 I wonder if the LCB will be procuring any of the 2003? The 2003 Van Duzer Willamette rated 91 in Wine Spectator recently. I'd like to try it. If it's that good, I think this could be a nice Chairman's Selection at the right price (hint, hint, Mr Newman! ;-)

Anyone know when the new Quakertown superstore is supposed to open? Will they have some kind of grand opening with special events? B