Monday, November 3 2008

It's Been A Long Time Updating

Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbour? No!

Ah yes, this is the part where I insert the obligatory apology for not updating my blog on a more regular basis. Anyone remember the scene between John Belushi and Carrie Fisher in The Blues Brothers, where he 'apologises' for leaving her at the altar? "I ran outta gas. I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from outta town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake, a terrible flood, locust's. It wasn't my fault!! I swear to God!!"

While I'm not as creative as Jake Blues, my interface didn't come back from the cleaners and this ferschluginer blog-writing contrivance ate three posts in a row. That'll teach me to compose on the fly! But mostly it's just been horribly busy, between Colorado, Kansas, Salt Lake City, Missouri and Minnesota, not to mention exotic Fort Langley British Columbia and such exciting activities as F-09 planning meetings, I'm run off my tootsies at the moment. But no rest for the truly wicked, this week I'm on the road again to Vancouver Island for Limited Edition events there.

But first, a big shout-out to my friend Steve Salkeld at Beer At Home in Colorado. In my blog entry about Limited Edition tour week one I talked about a bunch of places I visited, but completely left him out--my bad! Beer at home has two cool stores (Englewood and Westminster) with great customers--when I came in everyone was pitching in to unload a truck (well, except me, gotta protect my soft little hands, after all). That doesn't happen unless your customers really love the way you do things. I owe you a beer next time I'm through, Steve.

So last week I was in Kansas, Missouri and Minnesota. At Bacchus and Barleycorn Alberta Rager put on a great event. The Lenexa conference centre is a cool place, with a great multimedia set-up: there's nothing like a twenty foot LCD Jumbo-Tron to make my presentation look great. Jackie and company did a great job pouring, and everyone enjoyed some great food and wine pairings.

We hopped over to Minnesota and dropped in on the folks at Midwest Home Brewing and Winemaking Supplies. Dave runs a great shop--I was really blown away by how huge the place is. We did a sit-down pizza 'n' wine fireside chat wiith almost all of the staff, complete with a prize for anyone who could 'Stump the Geek'. Turns out I was able to keep my feet the whole night, but there were some great, subtle questions that took serious noodlework to answer. I've got to thank Dave for a lovely, lovely parting gift: a four-pack of Surly Brewing's Octoberfest, a real treat. No wonder your customers and staff love ya, ya big lug.

We motored on to Rochester the next day to see my old pal Wally Klopp at the Von Klopp Brew Shop. With a long history in his community, Wally has a lot of great customers, and his event was rockin'. They even laughed at my jokes, a sign of generosity (or that they're easily amused), and the venue was fantastic, a big country club way out in the country. A great time was had by all, and I left Pine Island with a bag full of the best cheese in Minnesota--thanks Wally!

This week I've been playing catch-up here in BC, with office time and meetings, but I managed to squeeze in an LE event for Fred's Wines at the Lions Hall in Fort Langley. I've known Fred for fifteen years (we both qualify as old-timers in the wine business) but this was the first time he's done an event with us, and it was a great success. Fred's customers are a great bunch, and I really enjoyed chatting with them afterwards. Some of them have been making wine with Fred as long as he's been open for business, and there were some great stories and a lot of yummy wine.

I'm off for Metchosin on Vancouver Island tomorrow to do an event at Candlelight and Wine. This will be their first event, and I can't wait to meet their customers and talk wine with them. After that it's Peninsula U-Brew Winery and Thursday it's the Winemaker. Whew, wish me luck.

posted by Tim at 05:40PM

0 comment(s)

Post a Comment  Post a Comment

Email