{"id":2047,"date":"2017-06-11T05:50:43","date_gmt":"2017-06-11T05:50:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/?p=2047"},"modified":"2017-06-11T05:51:50","modified_gmt":"2017-06-11T05:51:50","slug":"random-dribblings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/2017\/06\/11\/random-dribblings\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Dribblings"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, we walk into a local restaurant not long ago and see a sign at the reception desk announcing that a 3% fee will be added to the bill to compensate the cooks for the discrepancy in wages between them and the wait staff.\u00a0 It goes on to explain, that while the wait staff brings you your food and receives gratuities, the cooks prepare it and, therefore, deserve a slice of the pie.\u00a0 Now fair compensation is not the issue.\u00a0 Every entity has to work out exactly what that means in their situation, and act accordingly.\u00a0\u00a0 The question is how that is supposed to come about.
\nOne might muse that, if the cooks are indeed doing the job they are paid<\/em> to do, why they would be entitled to an extra \u2018spiff\u2019 on the side.\u00a0 Also, this little entitlement is automatic, whether your food was prepared well or not.\u00a0 That\u2019s like that mandatory \u201820% gratuity\u2019 added for \u2018parties larger than six\u2019.\u00a0 What is the servers\u2019 motivation to not just \u2018phone it in\u2019 if they are going to get the same money anyway?\u00a0 And all of this is in the face of an escalating minimum wage (the discussion of which would fill many pages with macro-economic arguments and be way too boring on a Sunday morning, or any time for most folks).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is the Bay Area-styled entitlement mentality spreading south like some sort of airborne virus?\u00a0 Is this kind of thinking one of the early signs that the \u2018participation trophy\u2019 generation is taking over?\u00a0 What\u2019s next, an add-on for their 401K?\u00a0 Why restaurants think this is OK in the first place is the baffler, and where does it end?\u00a0 A night out can rack up pretty fast already without all of the ups and extras.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why don\u2019t the servers divide their take with the kitchen?\u00a0 The servers benefit when the food comes out on time and well prepared.\u00a0 The customer is merely getting what he is paying for.\u00a0 Why not just have a city tax on top of that because the city would like a little more money, too?\u00a0 Then it can be like hotels where that $120 room you snagged on Expedia ends up costing you $180 after all the taxes and fees.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Long ago some angry restaurateur took out a billboard ad on the Long Beach Freeway that read, \u201cIf you can\u2019t afford to tip, don\u2019t eat out.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Of course, our first response was why is it up to us to compensate your help?\u00a0 The whole idea of tipping used to be tied to service where, if someone gave you a good experience, you tendered a little something extra.\u00a0 Now there are bills that come with the tips at various percentages calculated for you, essentially shaming you into picking one of the options.\u00a0 And if there are six or more of you, you don\u2019t have a choice even if your service is lousy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Nothing against the restaurant or their cooks, but this is a precedent that seems to be proliferating and there seem to be no natural boundaries.\u00a0 Does any of it ensure a better experience for the consumer?\u00a0 Oh yeah, them<\/em>.\u00a0 What happened to people simply doing the job they were paid to do to the best of their ability?\u00a0 Or is that not a \u2018thing\u2019 any more?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

KEEP ON TROCKEN?\u00a0 PLEASE, NO<\/u><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We just had our first exposure to the 2016s from Germany.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been telling you for to a while now to buy up the 2015s as it is a great vintage, one of the best in recent memory.\u00a0 Not having a firm impression of the 2016s, we were pleased with the opportunity to work through 80-100 of them.\u00a0 Our takeaway thus far?\u00a0 Buy up the rest of the 2015s!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The wines (mostly Rieslings) showed a bit here and there, and lacked the characteristic zip that pulled many of those 2015\u2019s together at the finish.\u00a0 In other words, it looks like our participation in the vintage will be sparse at best.\u00a0 There are always a few winners in every vintage.\u00a0 But given what is out there from 2015, and a more few late 2015 releases coming from top sources hitting recently, 2016 looks to be a potentially minor play with, as always, a few stars, though we still have another 100+ wines to taste, including, in all fairness, many of the top Kabinett and Sp\u00e4tlese wines.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Frankly, we are pretty tired of every German importer telling us how important trockens<\/em> (dry) are in German restaurants.\u00a0 The Germans like to drink their own stuff, we get that.\u00a0 But this isn\u2019t Germany.\u00a0 Here we have all kinds of cuisines, particularly Asian (Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese to name a few) that go beautifully with a crisp, classic kabinett or sp\u00e4tlese, the little bit of sweetness playing nicely against ginger, garlic, curries, and other spices.\u00a0 No other wine pairs as well and as broadly across a multitude of dishes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Plus, if you want to drink dry<\/em> Riesling, the Austrians, Australians, and the folks in Alsace are making better examples and have been doing it longer.\u00a0 And that\u2019s just Riesling!\u00a0 There are all kinds of other dry whites that will offer excellent choices\u2026Sauvignon Blancs, Chardonnays, Gr\u00fcner Veltliner, and so on.\u00a0 We understand the Germans responding to trends in their own back yard.\u00a0 But aside from Germans drinking German, we can\u2019t see why the vintners are so intent on competing in an arena where they are at a distinct disadvantage outside their borders\u00a0\u00a0 Most trockens<\/em> are sadly undernourished and lean, and far too many are simply not pleasurable.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There are those that will point to the GGs (Gro\u00dfe Gew\u00e4chse), the relatively new category of dry wines from \u2018Grand Cru\u2019 sites, as the example of elite dry German wine.\u00a0 Alright, sure, some of them are pretty good but they are also rather expensive for what they deliver, many in the $50-80 range in stores and much more on wine lists.\u00a0 There are certainly many more exciting choices for less money.\u00a0 Yes, there are places like Baden and the Pfalz where dry wines have been the tradition for a long time.\u00a0 But the Mosel\u2019s delicate, racy demeanor does not translate well into trocken.\u00a0 <\/em>They are a little better in exceptional, warmer vintages, but rarely \u2018great\u2019.\u00a0 The persistent question is \u2018why?\u2019<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Given over 1000 years of viticulture in these places, where certain styles developed because of the terroir of the region, we have to wonder who came along and decided all of that was nonsense.\u00a0 One of the great discoveries of modern winemaking is that, no matter how much technical wizardry one can employ, the most successful wines are the ones that are true to the place that they come from…essentially the same thing the monks figured out all those centuries ago.\u00a0 They drink a lot of sp\u00e4tburgunder in Germany, too.\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re obliged to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, we walk into a local restaurant not long ago and see a sign at the reception desk announcing that a 3% fee will be added to the bill to compensate the cooks for the discrepancy in wages between them and the wait staff.\u00a0 It goes on to explain, that while the wait staff brings … Continue reading “Random Dribblings”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2049,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047\/revisions\/2049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}