Episode 27 - at yeast we try

What is Samples?

cream team news

Andy Pates: 00:00

Hello, and welcome to Samples for Tuesday, 07/07/2026, episode twenty sixth. Hope everyone had a great fourth of July weekend, the long weekend. We took off Monday because the warehouse was closed. I'm sure everyone was hustling on Friday, working really, really hard, especially you salespeople all out there seeing clients, picking up checks, selling wine, doing tastings. Mark and I really appreciate it.

Andy Pates: 00:33

Back to the grind. Today is sake yeast number seven day. If you know, you know. And now you know. July 7, happy sake yeast number seven day.

Andy Pates: 00:51

And this is made famous by Masumi, which is a very famous brewer that we represent via world sake imports, and they make exceptional still and sparkling sakes. So thank you for doing your part to helping make Masumi a household name in the greater Chicagoland area. I hope everyone had a wonderful World Cup experience to those who celebrate. I know that the final games for the host countries didn't go the way we were hoping. So Canada, done.

Andy Pates: 01:40

Mexico, out. USA, also not advancing. But I am proud of all three of these host countries. I think you all, went above and beyond what people were expecting, and I look forward to more great competition in the World Cup. I'm gonna spare everyone the prognostication, the postgame thoughts, the predictions for the future.

Andy Pates: 02:08

I think everyone probably needs a break from that. I would like to extend a warm welcome to Mark Slobodnik, who is our new coordinator of purchasing and logistics. He starts today. He's gonna be training with Mark Payne, myself, and no doubt various people in the company, in customer service, as well as operations and in sales portfolio managers. So, please give Mark a warm welcome.

Andy Pates: 02:44

I'm looking forward, to working with you, Mark, and for everyone to getting you know get to know you better on the team. So welcome aboard the good cream, ship. And in one week, we're gonna be having our open house tasting. Tuesday, July 14, which is also Bastille Day. I don't know if that's a thing anymore, but, it is Bastille Day.

Andy Pates: 03:13

From 11AM to 1PM, we're gonna have some wines that we have on sale, larger quantities, or maybe some expensive curios open. We'll share that list ASAP. The samples will come in probably Thursday of this week, and we can go through and start doing some posts on the socials. There'll also be some new releases. Portfolio managers are gonna curate a few of those selections, something new, exciting, an opportunity for us all to taste, have clients come in and taste and, do our best to maximize the usage of the samples and to have everyone here tasting and writing notes and having an opportunity to meet our clients and get in the rhythm of having once a month these open house tastings that, coincide with the Tuesday sample pickup day and also, for reps to get in, taste, and then grab your, samples and get out there and sell unless, of course, you have clients attending the eleven to one.

Andy Pates: 04:24

I'm gonna run this one with Angelica as discussed before. Tori's gonna be out of town that week, and Angelica and I are looking forward to organizing the event. So more on that to come. As far as samples this week, what you should be thinking about, I know with the 1,900 SKUs that we currently have active, it's difficult to wrap your head around, you know, how to plan out the quarter, the month, the week, and in some cases, the day. What do I put in my bag?

Andy Pates: 05:00

But I do we've talked about this before, but I do want to bring to your attention our need, very strong need to get some energy, new placements around Bedrock. You were down significantly year over year. This had to do with, some Vin Chicago business and a wine dinner and a visit by Chris Cottrell, one of the partners in Bedrock. And they are certainly making that, pressure known, especially to Aaron Adams, a portfolio manager. And Erin and I need your attention in sampling and presenting those what we're calling the core four items.

Andy Pates: 05:45

So that would be the Sauvignon Blanc, the Ode to Lulu Rose, the Cabernet Sauvignon, and the Old Vine Zinfandel, I believe. So let's get some samples of that this week and some presentations, and that is on focus for for q three, which is, starting now. Also, Mirabello Prosecco doing exceptionally well. We're ordering container upon container. We do have an overabundance of the 200 milliliters.

Andy Pates: 06:24

I don't know if those are called splits anymore. I don't think the math works to call it a split, but that is the the size of choice for smaller bottles. We have 275 cases in stock, and I'm showing that we only sold seven cases in the last thirty days. So that is a very, very long supply that is long since going to be paid for and that is just sitting in our warehouse gathering dust and accruing, warehouse fees. So I don't think that that necessarily needs to be sampled, but if you want a sample to show the buyer how cute that is and pull it out of your bag and say, do you have a minibar?

Andy Pates: 07:06

Do you have a bar cart, Mr. Country Club? Do you have, I don't know. Are you doing the the service at an airport? Is there a private jet option?

Andy Pates: 07:18

Is this a DIY spritz? Can we put these on the display area of a retail store? Whatever you need to do to get or it could just be even considered individual by the glass as we talked to talked about that before. Whatever you need to do, I need some energy on that. That was, that is a significant amount of stock with very little sales, and we can always add more onto our containers of the seven fifty milliliters of the Prosecco and the Pinot Grigio and the Pinot Grigio Rose.

Andy Pates: 07:54

Also Antica Torino. Yes, I know we work with Oliver McCrum, and we do very well with Bordeagha. And some of you have even visited Bordeagha and picked juniper berries out in the in the the Dolomites, or I don't know what that's pre Alps. I guess that would be like maybe both. But, anyway, Antica Turino is a partnership with Vittoria Tzocbi and Filippo Antonelli of Antonelli winery fame.

Andy Pates: 08:29

And we have talked about this before, but I do wanna bring this to your attention again that we need to get this back to the energy that it had probably a year and a half ago, two years ago. Because we direct import this, we have to bring in more than we need so we don't miss out on cocktail placements or velocity. So we have a little bit of an overhang and and overstock. The Rosso, the recent arrival of the Rosso, we have a plan for that. There's a couple VIP placements where those 19 cases are locked up for them, but we have 60 cases on order that are probably gonna be two and a half months away.

Andy Pates: 09:15

So that can come back in, but plenty of Bianco, Quinato, the Amaro della Sacra, which has that really cool label of that Benedictine monk from the I think that's Sacra Di San Michele, which is the abbey that's in Torino. I think that's where the, and that particular herbal recipe, botanical recipe is is related to an Amaro of that area and that tradition. That needs some presentation. Not everyone needs to all of a sudden sample one whole bottle of Amaro de la Sacra. You guys can talk amongst yourselves and order a set and share them and and move them around.

Andy Pates: 10:11

So, I'm gonna let Christophe, Dan, and you all talk amongst yourselves and get a set that can be passed around of Antica Torino, which includes, again, the Amaro de la Sacra, the Kinato, the Bianco, the Stellare Primo Americano, which has that super fun packaging, definitely, like, kind of duck in vibes, supper club vibes to it. Really delicious, a lot less expensive than the Bordiga Americano, which, you know, everyone's in love with. There's an opportunity there to sell that. It could I mean, it probably has a more of a retail application based on the packaging, but that needs attention over q three and beyond to bring that back to the medium sized glory days that we had. And then also Borgo Moragliano, the producer from Asti in Pimonte, they make sparkling wine.

Andy Pates: 11:13

They make a little bit of still wine. They make borquetto, but we've decided historically to focus on the Moscato Dasty, which does very, very well for us. And because we are the direct importer, it is one of the least expensive options in the market for quality Moscato Dasty. And there's over a 100 cases in stock. We're selling about 13 a month, so there is room for new placements.

Andy Pates: 11:41

You know, that's something that would do really well with pairing menus obviously. It could be a comp at the end of the meal for VIPs, something, you know, a little bit sweet at the end of the meal. You know, obviously dessert pairings, especially key lime, but that's just incredible just as an aperitivo depending if it's a salumi situation or it's the classic pairing of melon wrapped in prosciutto, or people that just like a cold sparkling fruity sweet wine. And there's plenty of people that love sweet wine. So I do need that to get sampled and presented and definitely remind people that that is a cream direct import and the supply chain and flow and inventory is good.

Andy Pates: 12:29

I mean, least for now, it's good. And, pricing obviously is really good because there's not that added layer of national importer there. And then lastly, and we'll do a champagne update in the coming days. We just placed a very large I'm so proud that we did this. We placed a very large lyre PO.

Andy Pates: 12:55

So Champagne Liarte from Chavot in the Epernay Hills, in the Marne Valley, Aurelian Liarte is at the top of his game, and we placed I think it was €60,000 was the order. So for grower champagne, that is significant when you consider that we're doing, like, 25 to $30,000 a year with producers like Agrapar or Bayresh. But that's our second order from Lahaire. So we have we still have good supply on some things. They're all available first come, first serve.

Andy Pates: 13:31

They're not hyper allocated. The only thing that's a request only is the Inotek, the older vintages of the Baudillet and the Enprant. Please see me about that. I would also love to taste them. And then we have a significant amount of the big wines in good supply on order.

Andy Pates: 13:52

They're probably gonna be here in two and a half months, but we'll they'll land right before a SOND. If you know, you know. So they should probably get here, probably an SO and D situation. They'll probably arrive mid September, and then we'll be able to sell them October, November, and December. So, that's the La Herrite situation, but I was specifically wanting you to sample the champagne Charles Orban carton noir.

Andy Pates: 14:26

The carton noir is, is their brew that has just the right amount of dosage to make it comforting. The pricing for a grower champagne is very good. We have fifty two six packs in stock. We have more on order. It's owned by the G.

Andy Pates: 14:43

H. Martel family, which is one of the biggest names in champagne, but this still remains a small grower in RM. And they're in Toisi, which is it's right on the border of the Marne. It's I guess it would be the Western part of the Marne Valley kind of equidistance between REMS and Ebernay. But, you know, it's it's producers that in that area they they grow obviously Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, but there's a fair amount of Pinot Meunier, in the mix.

Andy Pates: 15:18

So that's a great introduction for people to Charles Orban. There is Blanc de Noir. There is Blanc de Blanc. Those two special cuvees were special ordered for Kyle, for his client. That's the demisec and the melissom, the vintage.

Andy Pates: 15:37

But that's a producer that very rarely are we denied a request for wine. They want us to grow. They want us to bring in more. It hasn't quite become famous yet, so the pricing still is reasonable and the supply is good. So I think there's opportunity with that.

Andy Pates: 15:53

So that's all I got this week. Looking forward to, back at it after the holiday break, and then we'll keep you posted on the upcoming open house final selection of wines. And we can talk a little bit more about that in next week's samples. So wishing you great sales, and I'll see you when I see you. Thanks so much.