Archive
Time Immemorial
Howdy Free Rangers,
First, there is soon to be a new Secret Whiskey List going out. This is our separate mailing list for (first come, first served) unpublished whiskey sales, and generally represents our lowest price of the year on the whiskeys on said list. If you have never received one of these, please click here and enter your preferred info (even if you think you signed up in the shop), and we’ll make sure you don’t miss out. Please feel free to share that link with other worthy whiskey nerds.
They say time is on our side. At least the Stones thought so, but that was a long time ago (they were young and high); another era, burned out and long forgotten, from this foul year of our lord, Two Thousand and Twenty. But that’s not the case. Time is not on our side. It has a singular agenda, and is otherwise unimpressionable. While it seems to still be a linear measure, so far as I can tell, our perception of it continues to grow more elastic as it moves along. Is it just me, or does every impending tomorrow seem like a never-ending yesterday (like Groundhog Day, but without Bill Murray, and it’s not funny at all)? Time out of Mind indeed. I’ve been re-reading Beaudrillard, so probably best that I leave you with just the tip of this particular iceberg, and move on to our discounted rarity of the week.
As many of you know, my favorite American whiskey (and probably in the world) is St. George Single Malt. It’s released once a year, as a vintage batch, and while it is always excellent, it varies from year to year fairly significantly. St. George Spirits is the original micro-distiller in America, and has been distilling in Alameda, CA since the early ‘80s. Besides their rare and magical whiskeys, they bottle some of the best gin, vodka, brandies, and liqueurs in the world. Their anniversary single malt releases are a profound (and profoundly rare) story for another time, but when the 40th is released, it’ll be harder to come by than front row Radiohead tickets (in the before time, when concerts were still a thing). Regardless of these variations, we get a max of 6 bottles per year (no retailer in the state gets more), and as such, it is rather expensive.
A few years back St. George introduced The Baller, a different, lighter single malt whiskey, whose name is a play on ‘highball’, and whose bottle wears one of the coolest labels in the industry. While this one does also vary from batch to batch, the quality is consistently high, and it’s a fresh, lighter style (un-peated) Single Malt. If you are into the classic Highball Cocktail, it’ll work out perfectly, but most I know tend to sip it straight. For the first several years of its existence, this release didn’t leave California, and demand has always exceeded supply. Since becoming available in our market, we can usually get a 6-pack two or three times per year. But with the recent shake-up at one of the two major distributors, 160 cases appeared in open inventory (though wholesale price did go up a bit). As you can imagine, we snapped up a good few of those. Hence the below lowest price we’ve ever offered on a truly unique and (usually) very limited American whiskey.
Click on the link below to add a bottle w/ coupon code to your cart!
St. George Single Malt The Baller sale: $75 retail: $129
*** This week only, as supplies last! ***
* No other discounts apply.
Cheers,
Jack
Proprietor
Free Range Wine & Spirits
No means yes… in wine shopping.
Hey Free Rangers,
First, for those who have asked (and thank you for that), while it’s not a complete archive, there is a MailChimp page that displays our 20 most recent e-mails (all previous sales have expired). I do also have a (somewhat neglected) blog, on which I have *tried* to log these messages. There are many other entries from years of its original incarnation as a mishmash of wine, restaurant, and music reviews: www.WineGeist.net. [Obviously, you know about the blog. You’re reading it. Thanks!] Unfortunately, I’m old enough that the vast majority of my published work appeared in physical magazines, before all content was a multi-media simulcast, remaining in clickable suspended animation indefinitely. And for those of you who specifically did not ask, thanks for bearing with an indulgent moment. We now return to your regular program, already in progress…
Why do so many people want to tell you ‘no’ in response to a simple question, when their intent is quite clearly, directly ‘yes’? All obvious innuendo aside.
Example:
Me: Hey, how are you? Is there anything I can help you find?
Customer: No… Just looking for a dry rosé.
So, would this individual like assistance in finding a dry rosé or would they prefer to be left alone, but really want me to know what they’re looking for, so I can seethe with frustration, as I watch them stroll right by the location in our shop where the item(s) in question live? Often the response to my face value query is even less vague, going directly from ‘no’ into what can only be construed as a question:
Me: Any questions about any of this stuff?
Customer: No. What sorts of Bourbon do you have?
Me: You know that’s a question, right?
As I’m writing this, Derek asks a guy if he has any questions, to which he replies, “No, I’m just looking for a gin,” and then asks a direct question about our gins. When ‘yes’ and ‘no’ cease to have constant meaning in the same mode of communication, we’re well beyond Bill Clinton territory, and are deep into Newspeak. It’s a horrifying thing, the destruction of words. Basic verbal communication has become a laborious endeavor, deeply fraught with inherent conflict. It’s double-plus un-good. On tougher days, I like to turn and walk away upon the ‘no’ and am often out of the room by the time they turn around to look at me, in the middle of the question that follows. I’d feel bad about how hard I’m giggling in back, except that I had just been lied to, for no reason at all, which makes it okay. Under Bush the Elder, Robert Anton Wilson referred to the art of saying that which is not, as “Old High Bullshit”, not be confused with “Middle Low Horseshit”, which seeks to use language to say nothing at all. But that level of deception by the orator is deliberate, and insidious. Somehow, when there is no ill intent at its core, the removal of all traditional linguistic bulwark seems even more dangerous. (Literally.) The basic structures of what’s left of American English, along with the structures of civilized society, are exponentially (and existentially) beyond the looking-glass. Fake News! Jabberwocky/Bandersnatch 2020!
[imagine seamless segue about here]
Ridge Vineyards is one the most classic, most iconic American wine labels, and that stylish label text has looked the same since the early ‘60s. Ridge is most famous for their old school Bordeaux style blend from their Monte Bello Estate which ages as gracefully as any wine in the world, and has become quite expensive, and rather difficult to acquire. But as old vine zinfandel is one of the most quintessential of CA red, it has always been in Ridge’s zin based blends that I have found the greatest intrigue and value (though they too have been getting pricier). I genuinely don’t believe you can a have a decent wine shop without at least one Ridge label on the shelf; we have lots. Their juice is unquestionably delicious, and historically significant, but I’d also argue that Ridge labels are as visually timeless and distinct as Domaine Romanée-Conti, the granddaddy of all Burgundy.
Lytton Springs Estate is Ridge’s primary Sonoma property, which is home to 100+ year old zinfandel vines, interplanted with Petite Sirah, Carignan, and small amounts of Mataro (Mourvedre) and Grenache. You can’t fake 100 year old vines, and they consistently produce deep, dark wines of complexity and character. Normally long sold out from the distributor before the next vintage arrives, this year of the zombie apocalypse has found them with an ample supply of the 2017 vintage, as the 2018 is about to be released in our market. We took full advantage of the 10 case discount and while full retail price on this lovely beast is officially over $50, we can do quite a bit better for you. How does $39 per bottle sound? Perhaps you’d prefer a 6-pack at under $35/btl w/ a FREE wine tote, and a FREE bonus bottle from my personal collection (which could be literally anything)!
(!) CLICK HERE to access the hidden sale page (!)
Ridge Lytton Springs 2017
sale: $39 retail: $49
6-pack Ridge Lytton Springs 2017 + FREE BOTTLE from my personal collection (+ free wine tote)!
sale: $209 ($34.83/btl) retail: $294
*** This week only, as supplies last! ***
* No other discounts apply.
Cheers,
Jack
Proprietor
Free Range Wine & Spirits
50 Cent + 49 pennies…
99¢. It’s the original deception in American marketing. Retail’s original sin. It’s the little white lie at the slipperiest pinnacle of the main slope of modern commerce. Perhaps deception is too deliberate a word, maybe it’s more accurate to call it low level trickery, but that doesn’t roll of the tongue as readily. That a majority of all retail products in this country end in .99 has always bothered me. It’s true that there is stalwart psychological principle behind it, and anecdotally, the first six months our little shop was open, I didn’t think that anyone would every spend over $19 on a bottle of wine. But one of the first things I decided we would do differently than most other shops is to have all of our products priced in whole dollars. I’d rather charge 99¢ less for every product (or occasionally round up), rather than insulting and lying to every customer for a buck (literally). It’s far from a revolutionary idea, it just seems more honest this way. If I’m going to be selling legal poison (beautiful as they may be), I feel like we should be straight about every aspect of it. So much of our daily discourse rests on a foundation of fundamental deception, and I’d rather not throw barrel proof bourbon on that particular dumpster fire. It’s a waste of good bourbon. Trust a $1 Store. The 99¢ Store has something to hide.
Everybody seems to be churning out their fall themed marketing already. How many e-mails can I be expected to read about the end of summer, while it remains 85 degrees outside, and our cooling bill is still approaching 4 figures this month? And now, the weather report: you’ve got a window? Open it.
As most of you know, the way we are often able to offer our deeper discounts is by taking advantage of high quantity pricing. Sometimes we get such a good value that even what we consider full mark-up puts our retail price below what the producer considers minimum public pricing for the bottle in question, and many smaller producers (and their distributors) actively police this (which we respect). Last week, we were asked to raise our online price for Rivetto Barolo Serralunga 2016, one of the best deals in Barolo (where the nebbiolo is wonderful, but can get quite expensive), from a superior vintage. Not only are Rivetto’s wines dry and delicious, and quite a bit less expensive than comparable labels, but they are certified biodynamic, in a region not always synonymous with clean practices. $59.99 is the lowest retail price allowed, but we don’t do 99¢, so we raised our online retail price from $55 to $59, making our (slightly higher) price still the very best advertised price on this vintage of this wine in the country. But since a private e-mail blast isn’t a publicly published offer, we can do pretty much whatever we want, so who wants a lovely bottle of $59(.99) Barolo for $49 per bottle?! If you’d like to go for a very reduced price mixed 6-pack of 3 bottles each Rivetto Barolo ’16 and Rivetto Langhe Nebbiolo ’17, I’ll throw in a FREE bonus bottle from my personal collection (which could be literally anything)!
(!) CLICK HERE to access the hidden sale page (!)
Rivetto Barolo Serralunga ’16
sale: $49 retail: $59
Mixed 6-pack: (3 x Rivetto Barolo ‘16, 3 x Rivetto Langhe Nebbiolo ’17) + FREE BOTTLE from my personal collection (+ free wine tote)!
sale: $199 retail: $246
*** This week only, as supplies last! ***
* No other discounts apply.
Cheers,
Jack
Proprietor
Free Range Wine & Spirits
