I am fuming and am very happy I have my own blog where I can say whatever the f**k I want. So I got an invitation to go to the 2006 Bordeaux UGC tasting at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel today. Great. Not that I really want to go taste over-manipulated, overpriced wine from a region I hate, but I do owe it to my customers to taste the wines so I can formulate somewhat intelligent responses to their queries about the said wines. As expected I get there and it is a madhouse. There are tons of people in a large foyer-like waiting area with a long table with a bunch of idiots from a company called Balzac Communications who clearly have the organizational skills of a 3 year old making a traffic jam in his room with his toy cars. As an aside I love when a company has "communications" in their name and have no f**king idea how to communicate anything. So back to the long table manned by the idiots from Balzac Communications. There are small signs on the table with letters like A-D, E-H etc. No one can see them so there is just a mass of clueless people standing on lines who have no idea where they are going or what they are doing. To make things worse, if you actually get to the front of the line, and you are in the proper line, there was a woman giving the last names of people on the wrong line to the woman who is supposed to be helping you. So even though you do the right thing, and wait on the proper line, you still get f**ked. Because there are stupid people not only on line, but there are stupid people helping the stupid people who are on the wrong lines. I know it is difficult to remember what letter your last name starts with but try a little harder people. Yes, the signs announcing which letters corresponded to which lines were placed in an extremely poor position so pretty much no one could see them at all. They should have gotten easels and actually made them higher so people could actually see them so they could avoid this clusterf**k. So I get to the front of my line with my invitation and they say "Sorry sir, you have not rgeistered, you have to go to another line over there." I bite my tongue so a rush of expletives don't come out. They don't and I was actually proud of myself. So I go to the other line and I get to Katie of the glorious company Balzac Communications and she says "Sorry, if you did not register I cannot let you in. Maybe you can try at 4pm." I show her my credentials as I watch the cashier from Crush walk in to no avail. So cashiers are allowed in yet wine buyers at one of the better wine shops in NYC are not allowed in. Schlummo after shlummo are allowed in, yet I was not allowed in. You want to see the bottom of the barrel of the wine scene, go to a Bordeaux tasting.
So I am not allowed into a tasting of wines I have never tasted, from one of the most talked about vintages in a very long time, because I had not registered. Mind you the line I was on was to "plead my case" as they put it to get into the tasting. F**ck Balzac Communications. I am a wine buyer for a store, and I am sure the Bordelaise would want me in there, as I have been supporting their wines since I started in the wine biz. I have sold a shitload of Bordeaux. Hell I even went to their damn-ass wine region in 2003, when the Iraq war started, when NO ONE wanted to go and everybody was pouring the shit down the drain and eating freedom fries. F**k the Bordelaise. Just needed to say that again. And my fate at this tasting is determined by saome BS PR firm who has communications in their name who don't even know how to f**king communicate? I will be sending this to someone at Balzac communications as well as my friends in Bordeaux too . . .if I have any left after this.
I ran into a colleague who is a sommelier at a restaurant that has been mentioned on this blog and he said he had not registered but had an invite . . .and they let him in! So every Tom, Dick and Larry from every corner liquor store in this city and so-called journalists and "free-lancers" were let in and I was not. Seems fair, right? So now these idiots at Balzac communications are hypocrites too. Well at least this post comes up in a Google search when you google Balzac Communications. F**k Balzac Communications!
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
F**k Balzac Communications (UPDATE AT BOTTOM)
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28 comments:
Your complete dissing of Bordeaux is ridiculous. How can you pan an entire region, comprised of thousands of producers? ?Yes there is arrogance there, but you are sounding a little too arrogant today too.
Froops,
I appreciate the comment but I am sticking to my story. I have been going to wine tastings for years and this is the first one I have been denied from going in and I will make a big stink about it because it is bullshit they did not let me in. It is my job to taste these wines and then buy them, advise my customers on what to buy, etc. I am not arrogant at all. I was stopped from being able to perform my job. Fuck them.
This was a fantastic rant Lyle, keep up the good work and don't let the bastards get you down.
Sucks, dude. I would have appreciated your views. I'm sure you're drowning your sorrows in Riesling.
One thing...I was a little confused however why you were ranting over a red wine sauce (Bordelais are the people from Bordeaux).;-)
Now I'm off to the Pape-Clement vs. Haut Bailly dinner you are missing. Psych!
Ben,
Actually I will drink a lovely Irouleguy tonight graciously given to me last night by one of my dinner co-horts from a great meal at Momofuku Ssam Bar. Enjoy dinner.
Priceless Lyle. Ironically Joe and I got turned away and were told to come back as well. It really was ridiculous the way it was set up. Marc Benecke should have been working the door.
Ah, the velvet rope. I'm curious... Did you offer the bounce-person a Franklin?
And what's a Crush?
Nice analogy w/ the 3 year old traffic jam thing. We have a 3 year old & he's constantly making traffic jams. He's a funny guy, but I sure wouldn't want him organizing a big Bordeaux tasting.
Hmmm. On the other hand, maybe he would have been an improvement over the Balzac Miscommunication folks....
It's that vast right wine conspiracy at work!
I am fuming and am very happy I have my own blog where I can say whatever the f**k I want.
Am I the only one who sees the irony in this sentence?
I bet my house you wanted to say
I am fuming and am very happy I have my own blog where I can say whatever the fUCk I want.
Great rant! I would be p.o.'d too with a company like that wasting my time.
Lyle, I think you have a little bit of an inferiority issue. There is a paradox in working in the wine business. You have a specialized knowledge and work with the financially elite. They are the ones who keep the business going. It takes a lot of security in oneself to do this job because there is great disparity in wealth between the clients and those who serve them.
You rage against people who don't show you the respect you think you deserve. If you continue to react this way the rest of your life, you will continue to pull these kinds of events/people in. Think about the kind of people that this never happens to. What kinds of attitudes do they have? If it wasn't Balzac, it would be some other company.
How does an insecure waiter become a CEO? He acts like one. If he continues to work in his restaurant raging against the customers whom he thinks have disrespected him in some way, he'll always be a waiter, and not a good one to boot.
It's kind of tough medicine but if you like where you are now, have no ambition to move up, like what occurred at the Bordeaux tasting and then raging about it, keep on with what you are doing. I guarantee you will continue to get what you are looking for.
Anonymous,
While I appreciate your candor, and your point about us wine merchants who serve the rich is an excellent one, it has no merit or point here. Seems like you just wanted to say it, as it was a point you wanted to make. If you read my post clearly you would see my gripe was with the stupid disorganized people at Balzac Communications and not wealthy customers. If you thought this was directed at wealthy customers, who mind you, are some of my closer friends in the wine business then you are waaaaaaaay off. You presumed things and were wrong. That is finer. We are all guilty of that at some point in our lives. You obviously have respect for me and are just conjuring up constructive criticism. That is why I allow anonymous comments.
This was not about respect. This was about an idiotic communications/PR company who is inefficient that they will not let me in, yet let other schlummo's in. My fine girl Katie, who rejected me at the door, did not have a computer screen up of bank accounts of who she was letting in and not letting in. If she did, then there would be no retailers or sommeliers let into the tasting..just the buyers of high end Bordeaux!
Great rant loved reading it. You got the invite it said registration required Even though they are f ups you did not do what you were supossed to du while many other did. So I guess as f ed up as they are you fed up as well. F them it seems like they f ed you
Hey anonymous commenters . . .
At least I have the balls to blog about how exactly I feel and not hide behind "anonymous" comments. Keep on hatin' and I'll keep on playin;. Peace and I'm out.
re: There is a paradox in working in the wine business.
Wine business is not the only one, according to:
"Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway."
- Warren Buffet
Other than that very keen observations, indeed
Hi Lyle,
Great post, hooked and subscribed as a result of it (followed a link from "The Pour", NYT).
Anyhoo, I agree, while Bordeaux may have great wine, it's frequently accompanied by a side plate of stuffiness on a bed of arrogance.
Lar
Lyle, I feel for you. It just shows how stupid bordeaux tastings are when they have to hire a "communications" firm to improperly handle admission. It only hurts them when you remember how this played out at ordering time...:)
Lyle, I don't understand what you're complaining about. By your own description you didn't want to go to this event. And you got exactly what you wanted. Sorry bro.
Dale,
It is my duty to my customers to advise them on their 2005 Bordeaux purchases, regardless if I like the wines or not. My palate means nothing here. That is what I am bitching about 'bro.
Just thought you might like to know that in your blog you call it a tasting of 2006 Bordeaux.
what a baby.
sounds like karma to me.
Just like many Americans do, Monsieur Fass thinks he deserves everything, that the entire world should be at his feet, the center of the world just because he is a wine buyer for a store. Ooh ah!!
You just had to register before the event. You didn't? Too bad. Blame it on yourself.
ZZZZzzzzzzzzzz. Boring.
Some bordeaux wine is ok. I think youn should give it another chance.
You are the same asshole that W.S. thru out of their tasting. Man assholes like you should not be in the bizz. You did not register and you did not have a bizz card. You are the asshole. What do you think you a fucking wine god. Your just another shit hole salesman. stay in new york and play your little me me game. Life is more fun that you can handle.
Jon Sevigny,
Don't know who you are but you are an MS. As the initials after your name indicate. Now I am really scared and intimidated. Get off your high horse ans for the record I was at one WS tasting and had a blast and was not thrown out so please don't lie in a public place like the internet. But then those initials after your name could be a lie to. Never met an MS I could stand to be in the same room for more than five minutes. I have a lot of fun in my life master sommelier? The question mark refers to your questionable credentials. I can play this game too so Mr. MS...go fuck yourself...you stay in your world and play your game being an arrogant sommelier and I'll stay in my world being a retailer and loving it. You are a liar and pothetic man. Fuck you and all your MS buddies. Go to hell.
John just googled you and saw youre Canadian. Explains it all.
WOW!
This post is ridiculous and pointless... and you sound like a hateful teenager in the middle of a crisis over-using "Fuck".
You do have an problem with your ego and I think the rebuff did you more good than you could think.
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