Episode 21 - Sing with me - Ole Ole Ole Ole Ole Ole

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Andy: 00:01

Hello, and welcome to Samples for Monday, 05/18/2026. I hope everyone had a great weekend. We had some incredible weather in Chicago, Cubs socks. A lot of people were out. A lot of shorts, a lot of pale legs, myself included.

Andy: 00:21

We had a friend in from New York and stayed local Friday night and Saturday afternoon. We went to Vinette, the really cool wine bar and little wine shop in the Riverside Train Station. We went into the city and we went to Bridgeport, to Maria's Packaged Goods. Their restaurant Kimski was celebrating its ten year anniversary. There was a lot of great energy, creatives, street art, really interesting food vendors, know, that usual Maria's terrible service where it takes way too long to get a drink.

Andy: 01:03

But you know, Maria was there, absolutely beautiful person at 84 years old. She was she greeted us at the door. Edmar, her her son, who's kind of like the he's kinda like the the Andy Warhol of of that community and intersection. Intersection. There's Lumpin Radio across the street.

Andy: 01:26

There's Maria's Packaged Goods. He has Mars Brewery. He and his brother has the have the gallery in Bridgeport. And there were a lot of artists and musicians and members of the hospitality world just enjoying the patio, the weather, the celebration of their ten year anniversary, and it was just really cool. I was glad to be a part of it.

Andy: 01:50

Our friends, Jamie and Anna Finnegan of Buff House, they have a cannabis company called Uprise. They were doing a pop up there. Everyone was just drinking and rolling joints and just celebrating life. It was it was a lot of fun. We ended up going to after that for dinner, we went to duck in and they were packed but we were able to get in and really enjoyed some delicious food and wine.

Andy: 02:22

Cream is well represented there. Jesse, you do a great job, as well as the the fine work you did with the opening of the net. When I was talking to Christina, the owner, her and Adina are gonna come to the Ole Obregado tasting this week, this Wednesday, more on that later. And then on Sunday, I went to Diversey Wines eighth anniversary and was able to go and show love and support for a great client for natural wine and had a lamb witch, delicious lamb sandwich and saw a lot of people, wine lovers, some people in hospitality, and then came home and just, you know, pretty much crashed. But as far as oh, what I was gonna say is that at Maria's packaged goods, there was a home makgeolli brewer called Yedo or Yedo and he was offering free tastes of his of his home brew.

Andy: 03:29

He's not yet commercialized or bonded. But he was at Alice June's Rice Fest that she had at her Brooklyn Brewery last, I believe it was Thursday. So he came back and he was pouring a keg from behind the bar at Maria's. It was very delicious. So, it's exciting to see that energy.

Andy: 03:50

More on that later with Alice June also visiting this week. So we do have a busy week with events. We have some Cream team members that are in New York for Summit. We have the port mini portfolio tasting on Wednesday with Ole Obrigado. And then Alice June is working with Cream and the Cocatelle Collective for various events throughout the city, well documented by the very well organized Chiyo and Kokotel Collective.

Andy: 04:23

So, please continue to drive awareness and attendance at those events. Please step up and help. If it's one of your clients, please be there and support as we're shorthanded this week and we want, everything to go off, well without a hitch. So that mini portfolio tasting with Ole is the priority. Invite, follow-up, show up early, schmooze, sell, execute, follow-up on on that.

Andy: 04:55

They're one of our longest standing, most loyal, and largest suppliers, which in this this game, in this day and age is is pretty rare to have that level of loyalty. I first started working with Patrick Cream. We, Mark and I, started working with Patrick in the summer of two thousand eight and that was that was when the Democratic primaries were going on, that was Chicago and the Obama energy and all the optimism and hope. Remember that? Remember those days?

Andy: 05:42

Yeah. That was going on. And so I started talking with Patrick, tasting his wines. He was represented by someone else. And I just noticed that, you know, something was was was different with this portfolio.

Andy: 05:54

These were delicious wines of place that certainly over delivered for the very good pricing and they were well packaged with I think Patrick was one of the first importers really to have that back label that was fun, educational, explanatory. You pick up the bottle, you turn it around, why should you purchase this? He gave those really good reasons with his marketing. He had an advanced website for its time, a lot of good information. So we we decided to work together and right after that happened the proverbial shit hit the fan with the financial crisis in the economy and the market essentially crashed.

Andy: 06:42

I mean not only the the financial market but the market for high end classical collectible wines that basically shut down. You know at the time of Cream's evolution being seven years old, we already had wines from the regions that were up and coming and that were considered values. We were really strong in South America. We were starting to become stronger in Spain. Olay made us stronger.

Andy: 07:09

And we had, you know, various domestic wines that were just not necessarily big Napa. So, I mean, we started to bring in French wines and Italian wines via Rare. Rare was one of our first major importers. And then we started to do some direct importing right around that time, but it was on a smaller scale. So once that happened and the restaurants did the reset where collecting was down and consumption was up And the degustation tasting menus and all the fancy pre fee menus, those really switched to more communal small plates.

Andy: 07:50

And the emphasis was on improving profit from showing over delivering values for by the glass. And retail wanted to have a selection of authentic wines that were fairly priced that people could just drink every day. And so that combination working with Olay, basically just shot out of a cannon and we haven't stopped ever since. The growth curve was fast, meteoric and they really helped us during a challenging time. And I'll never forget that and that's you know Mhmm.

Andy: 08:23

One of the many reasons why we're loyal to working with Patrick and his team is because they're easy to work with. They get it. They're very supportive and they do a lot of the hard work in terms of sourcing and importing and in some cases even making the wine. Patrick Mahdas partner Alberto Orte is, as we all know, a famous winemaker in Spain. I've been on the Olay trips a few times.

Andy: 08:50

Those are the big, you know, you're on the bus, get your books back to the bus, you know, kind of a Marchy sort of trip, but like definitely worth it in terms of education. I've been on a few of those and I've also been on some invite only small trips where, for example, Patrick and I went with Bob Calamia to Andalucia and actually stayed at his his childhood home as one of the you know the night before we left to to come back home. But we visited Jerez and San Lucar and Puerto De Santa Maria and and Albertos. The Poniente project was up and coming at the time and we visited sort of like the origin, the genesis of that. So they're a supplier that we need to continue to place in high regard and to never stop spinning those plates.

Andy: 09:44

So we all know what we need to do this week. It was previously said, I just really need everyone to have Ole at the forefront of your mind this week when it comes to time and attendance and, of course, sampling. And then also Alice June with Cocatelle, those events that are going on in and around the city. But two of the Olay trips that I've been on, we have several members of the team that have been. Our colleagues are in New York for the summit, which I've also been to several times.

Andy: 10:19

But two really stand out to me though. The first one, was, you know, trigger warning that this is there's gonna be some descriptions of violence and gore, related to a bullfight, in this. So if that is gonna make you queasy you can fast forward or skip it. But when I was on one of the Olay trips with Sean Chowdhury who used to own Hinsdale Wine Shop and Cellar Door in Downers Grove was on one of those trips and we were able to attend a bullfight at the end of the trip compliments of Alberto Orte. Raul Perez was we were asking what we should be doing in Madrid and he said, well I'm going to see this famous bullfighter and I'm really excited about it.

Andy: 11:09

And then we're like, how do we get tickets? And he laughed. He's like, this is completely sold out. And then Alberto said, well, you can have mine. Apparently he had like access to season tickets or was able to get them.

Andy: 11:20

But we went to this event and it was all the pomp and circumstance. I felt like Ernest Hemingway in the crowd, a lot of fans and a lot of like, you know, beautiful people and people watching. And then in a really short period of time, I realized that I do not like bullfights. They are very inhumane and and brutal and the famous matador that everyone went to see, he actually, he tripped going backwards and he stumbled and then the bull ended up hooking him under his chin with the horn and it went through under his chin and through his mouth and it flipped him up in the air and he trampled him a little bit. And then all the other bullfighters and the assistants came out to try and kill this bull who was gray and that rare color, the lighter color of the the skin of the hide of the bull really showed all the blood.

Andy: 12:20

And so all of the don't know what those things are called like arrows or spears. They were all like stuck in him and it just took a really long time for them to finally kill the bull. And I just I don't ever need to go back to that. I'll never forget it. And it's funny that in Catalonia they ban bullfighting.

Andy: 12:44

The the big Palacio Del Toro in Barcelona is essentially a farmer's market. In Madrid, it's still a controversial yet somewhat nationalized sport which I'm not judging anybody for going to but I'm not gonna go to it. But that was insane and the bullfighter did survive. He was severely maimed, but he survived and he's he's since came back and fought again. So, you know, take whatever you wanna take out of that that crazy story.

Andy: 13:19

But, yeah, bullfighting. And then the other trip to Spain with Ole that really sticks out to me is the one I mentioned earlier when I was there with Bob Calamillo and we were in Jerez and we visited all three of the of the the areas for the main areas for cherry production and certainly ate and drank well and we went to Barbate which is in between Malaga and Andalusia. It's the the industrial sort of shipping town where all the large tuna are caught where they go in kind of like near the Straits Of Gibraltar in some of the record bluefin tuna around the world are caught there and then sent to Skigee or consumed locally. And Barbate, we had this tasting with all of the all of the cuts of the tuna with all different types of sherry and it was it was magical. But the when we stayed at Patrick Mata's parents house and I was able to meet his mom, his Mutti, and then Gordo, his his father, both wines that he's created in their honor.

Andy: 14:31

I was trying to check into my flight and there was a problem with my flight. We're leaving the next day and it was like a quick connection between Malaga to Paris to to Chicago. And Bob had already checked in and everything was fine with his flight. And so it just basically said like see the the ticket agent when you get there. So I was a little like a little stressed out.

Andy: 14:51

So when we were at the airport and we flew Malaga to Paris, when I when we got to the flight was a little bit delayed and there was still a problem with my ticket. So I like was running to the gate to you know make sure that I could get a ticket and Bob was just Bob Kalameer, RIP, amazing amazing person. He was just kinda taking his time like, just kinda like walking along. And I was like, what the fuck? What the heck is this guy doing?

Andy: 15:23

And so I ran all the way up to the ticket gate and they said, here's your tick here's your ticket Mr. Pates, you're in seat like 4B or something. And I'm like, well, no, there's a mistake. Didn't have first class. And they're like, no, this is your or business class, whatever it was.

Andy: 15:39

They're like, no, no, there's no mistake. This is your ticket. And I'm like, oh shit. What am I gonna do? The number one buyer for Cream, really the number one buyer for anything is is is coming towards me.

Andy: 15:53

And do I keep the ticket or do I give the ticket to my buyer? And so I did the latter. I took one for the team and Bob rolls up. He's like, is everything okay? And I said, well, there's a problem with the ticket and here I want you to have it.

Andy: 16:11

And I handed it to him and he looked at it and he's like, what do you mean? I go, no. I want you to take this ticket. I'll take your ticket. And he said, first of all, I really appreciate you doing that.

Andy: 16:22

I would never accept it, but I want you to know that we're actually sitting together. And he pulled up his ticket and he had upgraded me to first class or business class or whatever it was. And we were sitting together and I hugged him, we slapped high fives and we basically drank Pommery champagne till he passed out all the way home. And, it's one of my career fondest memories of of travel. So Bob, I hope you're up in, heaven drinking some sick grower champagne and hanging out with with all of our friends that passed too early.

Andy: 17:02

So, as far as samples this week, I want you to focus on Ole, Ole, Ole, and get as many people as you can to that portfolio tasting and taste and sample the wines there and follow-up and execute. And I'm gonna take you out with picking up checks set to, Ole's theme song.

Andy: 17:24

Picking up checks and picking up checks and selling wine all the time. I'm picking picking up checks and selling wine all the time. I'm picking picking up.