by James Robinson, Your Co-op Sommelier

What we know

I sat down to write this blog with a completely different topic in mind, and then something strange happened on Aisle 5.

It was the end of my shift, I had gone to the check stand to purchase something for dinner, and as I made my exit, I made one last walk – as I often do – up the aisle before heading out. As I did so, I noticed a customer pacing back and forth on the wine side of the aisle, muttering and shaking his head. It was clear he was frustrated, so I stopped, as I often do, and offered my help.

“I’m looking for Chianti,” he said.

I walked him down to the far end of the Italian shelf and handed him the I Fabbri Lamole Chianti Classico.

“High elevation sangiovese, soft and floral, pretty notes of red fruits on the nose, supple tannins, medium bodied, eminently approachable and certified organic,” I said.

“I don’t know it,” he grunted. “I’m not interested.”

I shrugged my shoulders and put the bottle back on the shelf.

It was late in the day, I was technically off the clock, and so I decided to make my way toward the door. As I was about to leave the aisle, I looked back over my shoulder. He was holding another Italian bottle – this time Pojer e Sandri’s gorgeous, high altitude pinot nero (pinot noir) from the Dolomites – and scanning the label while shaking his head and grumbling before putting it back on the shelf.

My heart sank. I felt sorry for him, but also momentarily crushed and dejected by the weight of his words.

“I don’t know it, so I’m not interested …”

As I walked to my car, those words tumbled around my head and I grappled with the deeper meaning and how that mindset might affect the entire trajectory of one’s short life.

What if I had followed that man’s credo on the day I first saw my future wife walk past on that Port Townsend sidewalk? My life would be very different and immeasurably, inconceivably emptier.

Hadn’t this person ever made a friend, dated, found a spouse or a lover, tried a new food, learned a foreign language, traveled, explored, learned a hobby, watched a new movie, discovered a new author … Isn’t the discovery of the unknown one of the things that makes life exciting, that makes it worth the living?

I get it. I’m not trying to be overly critical, and not everyone has $20 to burn on wine they don’t like. Nevertheless, if there ever was a place to gamble on wine, Aisle 5 at the Port Townsend Food Co-op is it.

Our shelves are loaded with wines worthy of discovery and worth every penny on their price tags. Beyond Susanna Grassi’s Lamole Chianti Classico, or the Poger e Sandri Pinot Nero, the shelves brim with exciting offerings from Georgia, Slovenia, Italy, the Canary Islands, Spain, France, Washington, Oregon, California and Port Townsend. These days, most wines are certified (or at least practicing) organic or biodynamic or both; made with little intervention or manipulation by independent, small production vignerons and family farmers; offer pure and distinct expressions of fruit and are firmly anchored in a place. Individually, the wines are capable of transporting the drinker to another place and time. Collectively, the wines represent passionate wine making, love for the land and farming, purity in fruit and excellence in technique. In short, they are worth a second glance, they are worth taking home, they are worth a try – you’re bound to find something you like.

And while many labels may appear unfamiliar, I encourage you to gamble, get out of your comfort zone and try something new. Don’t let that intriguing bottle pass you by. Enjoy the search and relish the discovery, because it’s the discovery that makes life worth living.

See you on Aisle 5.