Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Baron was called to go to lunch with the directors. Perhaps in a few years I'd be fortunate
enough to be invited but for now I was a little-known producer with no market clout. The
wine buyer and I got down to business.
'Caro, we have a new category management system. It forces us to focus on successful
wines,' said Dave.
I felt my blood drain from my body. It was about six months since he had ordered from
us.
'Your white wine now has a permanent place on our shelves. It is one of our core range
that we want to have in stock on a permanent basis,' he said. 'We want to order all your
stock of the new vintage sémillon sauvignon blanc.' Inside I was jumping for joy but I kept
a cool exterior.
'What about the merlot?' I asked.
'I like it but it may be too tannic for our customers,' said Dave, then took another swig and
spat a clean, high-pressure jet into the spittoon.
'It won a medal in the Bordeaux Wine Competition. We'll have the medals on the bottles
in a few weeks.'
Dave looked through his stocklist.
'I haven't got much pure merlot at the moment. We'll try 1,200 bottles.' Then he offered
me a price that was well below what we needed. I was desperate to have a foothold for our
red wine so I agreed. It wasn't the 4,800-bottle order I had hoped for or the price I wanted,
but it was better than nothing.
I called Sean that evening.
'Well done, Carolinus.'
'It's nothing to do with me. It's your great wines.'
When I hung up I was despondent. The price I had agreed on the merlot was so far from
what we needed to cover the running costs as to be laughable.
'But look how far you've come,' said Aideen. 'How much does the reduction represent?'
She did a quick calculation on her mobile. 'Look, you made more than that on wine sales at
your classes this week. Remember this time last year you had no retail customers and now
look at you. A regular stock item for them. It's mega.'
Aideen put everything in perspective. Compared to the previous year our progress was
enormous. The following day, as I was leaving, a wine importer called looking for exclus-
ivity on two of our premium wines. It was a boost to our morale but we weren't keen to
jump into an exclusive arrangement and I played for time.
Ellie spotted me coming through the doors of Bordeaux airport.
'Mummy, Mummy,' she yelled, almost leaping out of the car window in excitement with
Sophia hot on her heels.
I dropped my bags and ran to hug them.
