Monday 2 January 2012
Pfeiffer Wines Rutherglen
There’s a bit of a problem when you're relocating website material from one site to another and the new layout doesn't quite coincide with the old one. Needing a couple of quick intros to pages devoted to Baileys of Glenrowan, Brook Eden and Pfeiffer Wines, given the commonality of a Wine Club membership at each establishment it made sense to look at what prompted the move into the Wine Club. There are, after all, a number of places on these pages, and many of them have wine clubs that Hughesy didn't join.
In two of these cases - Brook Eden and Pfeiffer - the Cellar Door experience was such that having heard of the existence of a wine club I had no hesitation about signing up. That, in turn, underlines the importance of a winery's Cellar Door staff, doesn't it?
We arrived at Pfeiffer Wines with time up our sleeves but jaded a jaded palate after a big day sampling the delights of Rutherglen Muscat and Topaque. I'd had a good look at Campbells, Stanton & Killeen and Chambers, a great steak and red wine pie for lunch and a slightly disappointing visit to a crowded All Saints where I'd been totally unable to attract Cellar Door attendant attention, and I was, frankly, inclined to call it a day. The road back took us past Pfeiffers, and there was an interesting bridge across Sunday Creek that I thought was worth a look at.
After the look, Madam was fairly adamant that we should try the wines, and when we made our way into the Tasting Area we were greeted by none other than Mrs Pfeiffer herself. A glance at the equivalent entry for Brook Eden will reveal we encountered a proprietor there as well, and there are probably two reasons why landing on the doorstep and encountering an owner is going to enhance your Cellar Door experience. For a start, with a proprietary interest in the place it's in their own best interest to get you in, isn't it? Rather obvious, but still worth stating.
The second point might seem to be equally obvious. If you're talking to a hired hand and the boss or some other supervisor is on the premises the underling's going to be moving around, ensuring that everyone in the area's being looked after.
If the boss is looking after you, on the other hand, and they feel like stopping to chat there's no one lurking in the background tapping a foot and pointing repeatedly towards a watch. So it's always better to talk to the boss, particularly if there aren't too many other people around and the staff in the vicinity are able to look after them.
But, in the end, it all comes down to the wines. Talking to the proprietor is all very well, but if the wines don't chip in and do their bit you won't be signing up for anything. The tipping point came, on a summer afternoon, in the form of the Gamay, the variety that gave us Beaujolais, perfectly suited to summer drinking here in the Little House of Concrete. Freight free helps too, and while I've remained a C2 (two shipments a year) rather than a C3, the April and October Tasting Dozens are invariably looked forward to and approached with a great deal of interest.
A drinker, of course, can not exist on Gamay alone.
