Your wines in Canada (esp. Quebec)

[Lesley C]

Hi Randall,

I'm a restaurant critic here in Montreal and I see your wines featured on many, many wine lists around town (you have a great agent!). Is Canada, or more specifically Quebec, an important market for you? Do you think Canadians (or Quebeckers) have different tastes than Americans? What do you sell most? And what hasn't moved off the shelves? I don't think your Reisling is available here. Is the SAQ giving you a hard time?

Thanks

[Randall Grahm]

Dear Lesley,

Thanks for your note. Quebec is a great, great market for us and ironically enough, I just hosted some folks from the SAQ at the winery just yesterday. Malvasia Bianca seems to be a great seller for us as well as Cigare Volant. I do think that Quebeckers have a far more sophisticated, European palate than your basic anglophonic North Americans. They do value subtlety and finesse. And I did pitch the SAQ long and hard on the Pacific Riesling, esp. the 2002 vintage en screwcap, which I think is by far the very best one that we have produced. I'll be up in Quebec in a few weeks for some sort of fete; the details escape me at the moment. Cheers, RG.

[Lesley C]

Thanks Randall,

You must also be selling a lot of Cardinal Zin in these parts. It's usually sold out at my local SAQ.

About the screwcap: last year on a trip through the Cotes de Provence, some wine maker (sorry the name escapes me right now) told me you weren't happy with synthetic corks. Is that true? Are you now investigating screwtops as an alternative.

[Randall Grahm]

Dear Lesley,

Yes, that is correct. I have not been happy with the synthetic closures for some time now. They perform reasonably well mechanically but they seem to suffer from the tragic flaw of causing the wine to age much more rapidly that it would with a conventional cork. It is my intention to move our entire line over to Stelvin screwcaps within the next year and we are well on our way to meeting that goal. We have been tremendously happy with both the performance of the screwcap as well as with the reception from our customers. I am asking my colleague, John Locke, to contact you to set up a meeting in Montreal, if time permits. Cheers, R.