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created over 2 years ago | Tagged: |
2martens
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’ve been a ‘Brown Derby’ fan for years, though, truth be told, my first Brown Derby love was a fruit-filled chocolate cake (ostensibly a recipe from the Brown Derby restaurant.) My second Brown Derby love was the wine store in Springfield, Missouri whose catalogs were some of my earliest wine reads. In fact, Brown Derby, which has been in business since 1934, still sends out six of those wine catalogs a year, one of the few retailers I know that still trusts the US mail to help them sell wine. “We used to send out one catalog a month,” said Brown Derby owner and President Ron Juge, “We had to cut back.”
WSJ: Although you still send out catalogs, you have a pretty comprehensive website. Do you sell a lot of wine over the internet as well? RJ: I really would rather not say how much – but we do have a very strong local community of buyers. WSJ: What is the profile of your local buyers? What are they drinking? RJ: We sell a lot of American wines- wines from California, Oregon and Washington. We have an incredible American wine selection although we actually sell more French wines overall.
WSJ: What category is your strongest? RJ: Pinot Noir is very strong and we sell a lot of Pinot Noir under $20 a bottle. Bryon does well for us- so does Robert Talbott’s Logan Pinot Noir and Banshee, which is a label started by a friend who used to work at Crushpad. He buys fruit from all over California. Banshee is doing very well. The Pinot sells for $20 and drinks like $40. After buying a bottle, people have been coming back and buying cases of it.
WSJ: And what’s not selling? RJ: High-priced Australian wines and California Syrah. I scratch my head and ask why because there are some really good Syrahs out there. Spanish wines have slacked up for us too. WSJ: I’m hearing those very same words from other retailers around the country- Australian wines and Syrahs and wines from Spain seem to be taking a hit. RJ: And I don’t understand it because the price/quality ratio of Spanish wine is really great.
