The wines at Pop More Corks are chosen because each has a story.  Each expresses something of what they’re made of, how they’re made, who made them, and where they come from.  On the other end of the wine character spectrum, there are wines produced for the mass consumption market, like Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay.

It is a very well made California appellation wine, meaning the winery can use grapes from anywhere in the state of California.  The makers can not restrict the brand to a region because of the sophisticated marketing steps used in creating the blend.  Surveys begin the process by asking how the consumer wants their chardonnay to taste.  From that data a flavor profile will be engineered into the next round of production.  The wineries can execute the profile be selecting grapes from throughout California that will result in the blended flavor requested.

This kind of wine exists primarily to make money for the producer.  Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay is a good wine.  It’s just that it has been created to please a broad cross section of the wine consuming public.  The wines selected for the shelves of Pop More Corks have a much more unique flavor profile.

The chardonnay wines chosen for the inventory represent how a chardonnay should taste if it comes from a particular region.  Chardonnay grapes can be grown in a hundred different places around the world.  Chardonnay grapes grown in Santa Barbara county California will taste much different from those grown in the Maconnais in Burgundy in France.

Because the wines speak to not only their type, but where they come from, they have character.  Through the experience of a wine tasting, the costumer has the opportunity to distinguish these differences.  For example, a chardonnay from the Maconnais in Burgundy in France will taste crisp and clean and very refreshing with no oak to it at all as compared with a big oaky buttery chardonnay from California.

At any one time there are 400 distinct wines of with this quality of character to choose from on the Pop More Corks shelves.  They got there through a unique selection process.  Having worked in restaurants before his wine wholesaling days, David was familiar with the many different kinds of grapes and where they were grown.  He gave a list to his suppliers and asked them to recommend the best representatives of each kind of wine on the list. 

During his young years as a student, David was captivated with geography and thrived on studying about all the remarkably different places and peoples in the world.  His passionate interest in wine stems from a particular wine’s intimate connection to the soil, community, culture, food, people, and climate where the grapes are grown.  When a wine tasting dialog begins at Pop More Corks, David begins to travel the globe indulging his delight at the diversity in our world.   

There are forces at work trying to homogenize the world for the sake of economy and efficiency.  The unfortunate tendency is for groups to form based on some common set of beliefs.  Soon those rigid beliefs build walls keeping others out.  Our institutions need to be redesigned to be more inclusive if our world is to have any hope of solving the great problems we face.

At Pop More Corks, the world of wines rich with diversity and character are valued most.  And for the people tasting these celebrated wines, revel in the fact that you are unique in all the world.  No matter your profile of personal characteristics, our world would be diminished were you no longer with us.