About three months ago we attended a tasting menu based on Slovak wines at a great local restaurant. Every dish (out of a total of 8 courses) was served with two wines, one from the Vino Nichta winery and the other by Ostrožovič. By and large we liked Ostrožovič better and I decided to contact the winery to see if they would ship to us directly. The following is an —only somewhat— abbreviated transcript of the discussion that spanned a sum total of four emails.
David: “I was wondering if it would be possible to order wines directly from you. We’re interested in the following wines […], roughly 10~20 bottles of each.”
Veronika: “If you mail us the delivery address we can have it shipped in one day.”
David: “That’s great, if you can give me a price estimate for purchase+shipping we can finalize the order.”
Veronika: “We just shipped you the boxes, they should arrive tomorrow. Cash on delivery; xxx,xx €.”
David: “Erm, right…”
Actually I didn’t say that last part, I just thought it. I don’t know whether this aggressive sales strategy is due to an incomplete grasp of polite English by Veronika or whether she’s just efficient at what she does, but the upshot is our pantry is now stocked with a solid 72 bottles of quality wine (to wit: Furmint Sur-Lie, Furmint Solaris, Lipovina Natur, Muškát Žltý and Muškát Saturnia).
Add to this a small batch we bought at the local wine tasting specialist three days ago —located inside the Catholic church bell-tower on the main square, reachable via a narrow staircase I would not enjoy navigating while inebriated— and I think we’re all set for a year and a half, maybe even two. Note to self; do not, repeat not, go on a drinking binge.
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