Once, at a wine dinner for a producer from Portugal’s Alentejo region, a distributor manager leaned over, introduced himself, and then said, ‘I didn’t realize Franklin had such a large Portuguese community.’
Me: What?
Franklin does not have a particularly large Portuguese population*. But Pour Richard’s sells a ton of Portuguese wine, and that manager just assumed we were selling that wine to Portuguese people. In fact, we sell that wine to everybody. This- introducing our customers to the wonders of Portuguese wines- is easily among my proudest achievements in retail. But I had a lot of help….
I knew Tony Branco from ‘the road’; we’d bump into each other at accounts, and chat while waiting for the buyer to be free. But one snowy day a few weeks after PR moved into Grove Street, Tony walked through the door, shook off the flakes, unwound a voluminous red scarf, and said, “Anna, what are you doing here?’. When I explained that I was one of the owners, Tony said, ‘Oh, my friend told me there was a new store here that might be good for me-he didn’t say it was YOU! This is good.’ Meaning he trusted me to give his wines a shot-we wine nerds stick together.
Tony showed me some bold Douro reds. A silky Dao red and white. A fruit-forward red from Alentejo. A Vinho Verde that made me forget everything I ‘knew’ about Vinho Verde. And then he showed me the prices.
Me: That can’t be right.
But it was. Wines- real, delicious, amazing wines from an actual person and actual place- that consistently cost WAY less** than comparable wines from other regions. Some of them retailed for $10. Some of them even less. And so I started selling Portuguese wine, which meant educating our customers. Which was easy and fun to do because who doesn’t love great wine at bargain prices?
My introduction to Augusto Gabriel was a little less direct. A distributor sales rep asked if he could send in a specialty portfolio manager, I said ‘sure’, and then Augusto appeared. We hadn’t met before, but we knew many of the same people. And he brought more amazing Portuguese wines, wines that were an excellent complement to Tony’s portfolio. Tony has more strictly traditional producers, while Augusto’s portfolio has more of a modern bent. But they both have a wide variety of producers and regions. And throughout, the wines are absolutely terrific values. Eventually, we moved past some of the entry level wines, to find that the Reservas and Grand Reservas were even better bargains. If wines of this quality hailed from California, or France, or Italy, they’d be double or triple the price.
Other reps have sold Portuguese wines to us. But for me, Tony and Augusto are the best, the one-two punch, the guys who have literally developed their own fan clubs. And treasured friends, as well. Which meant we had to have one last Tony & Augusto Show. September 28. 2-5 PM. Great wines. Great prices. Great fun. Great Friends. Don’t miss it.
*The best statistics I could find suggest Franklin’s population is approximately 2.5% Portuguese.
**Why are these wines so inexpensive? Too long for this forum. Come to the tasting and we’ll explain.