A wine store is not a wine store

I needed a bottle of wine. I have a dear friend who loves prosecco. Tomorrow we're getting together to watch a movie. He's ordering the pizza, I'm bringing the bubbly.

My favorite wine store was an hour and a half drive from work, so that was out. I asked a coworker if there were any wine stores in her neighborhood, which happens to be the neighborhood right next to my job. She recommended this one. She also admitted that she didn't know much about wine.

I got to the store and loved that as soon as I walked in, there were baskets and shopping carts. These folks know their clientele. They had several wines on a display up front, each with a short description of the wine. Great. It was crowded, so rather than bump elbows with people, I asked a cashier to point me towards the prosecco. She said that, if I wanted, she could call over an associate to walk me there and make a recommendation. Great! I was loving this store more and more.

My new best friend came over immediately. He zeroed right in on a particular bottle, saying it was the "most interesting" prosecco he had tried. Those are the magic words for me when it comes to wine, so I not only bought it, I had it gift wrapped. They will gift wrap any bottle for you for FREE. Heck, I may have every bottle gift wrapped from now on.

The cashier wrapped the bottle up in nice shiny cellophane and tied some multicolored ribbons onto it.

I then did a little more wandering, and was disappointed to discover that the rest of the store did not have the helpful descriptions that the display up front did. And I really didn't care to wander the place with my new buddy. I like browsing on my own. I realized quickly that the reason my favorite wine shop is my favorite wine shop is because of the helpful descriptions of each bottle. Those little write ups haven't steered me wrong yet. Just grabbing a bottle off the shelf is a crapshoot, and more often than not, I end up wasting money on wine I don't like.

I ended up choosing a bottle of zinfindel from that display. It had a nice description, and sounded like something I would like.