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cream team news
Hello, and welcome to Samples. Monday, March 16, the week of Swath. Happy Soif to everyone and those who celebrate. This is the wine fair episode. March is continuing to impress with our sales, our new business, our placements, a lot of allocations are trickling in and trickling out.
Speaker 1:Overall business is very strong. I mentioned that at Friday's meeting. I really appreciate everyone's efforts with that regard. This week is going to be chock full of events, market visits, after parties, fire drills, last minute deliveries, and the overall what we do picking up checks and selling wine. I'm gonna be picking up checks this week but it's not gonna be from clients.
Speaker 1:It's probably gonna be at clients when the bill is placed on the table and all of our T Rex suppliers scatter for the door, but this is the business I've chosen and I enjoy it as Max Zimmerman would say it's a pleasure to pay this check. I really appreciate everyone's hard work in the planning and preparation. I would refer you to the swath doc in Google. Make sure that you are at your events and you get your suppliers to the events on time. For ownership and management and reps just wanting to support the company, we are going to need you to visit and to go on tour and visit these events.
Speaker 1:Please check-in with the portfolio managers to see how your help can best be utilized. And, obviously, if it's one of your clients having an event, you need to be there. And if for any reason you can't be there, please let me know. Please let your management know, we can figure something out. As far as the big fair on Sunday, I would like to see everyone there, especially those in the city, ownership management, and reps that sell a lot of wine in this genre, which is the low intervention, natural, organically farmed, sustainably grown, minimally made, thoughtfully made, just overall people that we love, enjoy and wanna hang out with.
Speaker 1:I started thinking about the first Swath and that was in 2017. It was actually not at the Plumbers Union Hall where it is this Sunday. It was in the Herbararium which was the private event space above Bad Hunter next to and above the original Eau Cheval at the corner of Randolph And Halsted. So Bad Hunter, the veg forward, Heisler spot, they had a good run, but RIP they couldn't make it through. Just feeling a little bit nostalgic for that place.
Speaker 1:We used to have our office down the street that was a fabulous vegan burger and they were a great supporter of natural wine and low interventionist wine and delicious classical wine that's organically farmed. So at that Soif, it was a ragtag crew. It was originally that fair was organized by Papa Swaff himself, Mark Lindzy. His wife, Josefa Concannon, was contributing. Nadim Audi from Selection.
Speaker 1:Massal was also in the mix more in idea contribution and less in the work effort. Tory really picked up a lot of the marketing slack and really helped Mark Lindsay promote an amazing show. We had probably the most producers there. Alvaro de la Vina from Selections de la Vina had brought in his Spanish producers that were on tour that we just started working with. There was Daniel Ramos.
Speaker 1:There was Manel Avino from Clos len tiscus. Shersho from Albamar was there and Finca Parera Rubin from Finca Parera was there. I'm I could be missing somebody, but we also had some of our domestic producers in tow and some of the original domestic producers like Evan Lewandowski and Sean from Leylun Populous. They were repping. And then Cream had its own table as a regional importer and we showed some of our direct imports.
Speaker 1:But that was a great event. I kind of miss it, how small it was and how just chaotic and it was like the pure joy of the wine fair. And you know since it's moved into the Plumbers Union Hall which is a really big space, I think a needed space just given how the event has grown and it's been at the Plumbers Union Hall ever since. This unpasteurized cream that we're hosting at the office on Friday, We the last one we did was six years ago and that was the last natural wine fair in the country that happened before lockdown. So third cole slaw was supposed to go off the next day.
Speaker 1:Everything was shut down that day and we went into lockdown on that Monday. So the unpasteurized cream that we had at Super Kana six years ago, we're gonna bring it back at our office and so I'll be really happy to see that event happening again and we can certainly share some stories about that. But I joked in the meeting about when suppliers want restaurant breaks, well you know you shouldn't have come, that's what you signed up for and you know the meme about the one attendee of Swaff who's nervous about you know which of the 47 off Swaff events he should attend with the rest of the trade. I was kidding and I I want everyone to know that I I'm really proud of this event. I'm proud of our city.
Speaker 1:You know, Chicago is capital city of the Great Lakes, freshwater landia, you know, the 3rd Coast so to speak. And this is our wine fair and it's independent and I'm so proud of Mark Lindzy and his team, what they've done over the years to grow it to where it's at now, where it just brings so much energy and enthusiasm into Chicago. There's an opportunity for new producers to meet people and launch producers that don't have representation to make a connection. There's a lot of trade that comes in from around the Midwest and around the country. So the someone who's, you know, Michigan producer who's showing their cider could connect with a Cincinnati restaurant or an Iowa importer or a Wisconsin, you know, distributor.
Speaker 1:So it really is something that we should all be really, really proud of and and I am. I think that Sunday will go really well and all of these events during the week should go well. I am very, very excited. I would just caution everyone to remember that when you are out in out and about in the city representing our company, clients, you are to act in a professional way. When in doubt, always take an Uber.
Speaker 1:You can submit that expense. No questions asked. When you are out, you're representing our company regardless of what account you're at or which supplier you're talking to. It is a big party, but it also is a big selling event for creams. If you're out late with suppliers, it's okay.
Speaker 1:If you need to spend a little me time in the morning, possibly sleep in, get your rest. I don't want everyone to feel that they have to work two shifts. That is not necessary. It's not required. If it's more of an afternoon or evening heavy day, I want you to take off that morning and get some self care and relax.
Speaker 1:Some of the past SWAF participants for Cream, I'd mentioned the first SWAF which was a lot of the Selection Della Vigna producers, But we really have had some rock stars come in. I remember maybe it was the second or the third Suave where we had a Rue and Frank Cornelissen showing their wines. We also had the folks from, I think it's Giovanna from Partita Craze was showing the wines. We've had, you know, Zev was a long time staple bouncing around and supporting with some of his producers. And then obviously with our Michigan contingent, they come in and they definitely represent.
Speaker 1:And I think that this fair, this Midwest Great Lakes fair really does have a strong showing of the great producers from the region, especially Michigan where we are one of the leaders in the category. So it's an opportunity for you all to meet folklore. They're coming, they're sort of like the Stranger wine of the North and then obviously stranger will be there along with Modalis. And I just think that it's gonna be a really good time. So as far as what you should be thinking about this week for samples, I opened up some wines after our meeting for a kitchen tasting, and I was really impressed with the way that the Susukaru Rosado was tasting.
Speaker 1:And I feel like that could be poured, should be poured by the glass, and also the Antoine Souignet, the Beaujolais Velage Gamay Pursuit. I I believe that's Pursuit. Those now have a by the glass price, special by the glass only price of $2.16 a case or $18 a bottle. So this should be for bonafide by the glass, not not a a retail wine bar workaround. This should be for, you know, people that are pouring wines by the glass in a restaurant environment or a wine bar, a pure wine bar environment that can get these in in front of a lot of people.
Speaker 1:So please take advantage of that. Those two wines or samples that you can pull, we have over 25 cases of stock. So, there's opportunity everywhere. You know, it's a shout out to Frank Cornelissen who was a, you know, a third co Swaff attendee. Also Antoine Souignet that was poured at the original swath by myself and and Mark Payne at the Bad Hunter Herbarium.
Speaker 1:I don't remember how you how you say it. What I forgot to say when we were talking about the unpasteurized cream that was at Super Cana, I was texting Zach Eastman about that the other day and that's where I first met him. It was after that tasting and he was telling me about this concept that he was basically he was changing the East Room over to easy does it. We're talking about his journey into wine and the producers that he was interested in and I just knew that this guy was he had the magic and I knew that he was gonna be successful. You could just tell and six years later Easy Does It is one of Chicago's premier places to go for enjoying wine, learning about wine, meeting producers, hosting events, hanging out in the summertime, dancing.
Speaker 1:I'm really proud of Zach and Easy Does It. The other thing that made me super happy on Friday was that I went to Creepy's for lunch and had the pleasure of running into Emily Scher who's the wine buyer and she's the beverage director for both Elska and Creepies and we just got we caught up and that was just delightful and I really love that restaurant in the wine list and especially the beverage program at Elska. So I think that I hope you're doing a great job working with Emily. I really am so proud of our placements on the list and the people that Emily I know she's very particular about who she works with and who she sources from and it's an honor for her to be pouring and listing a lot of those wines. And then I got to thinking like that intersection at Ada and Randolph.
Speaker 1:Right down the street at Ada is another exceptional natural wine beverage program, three star Michelin at Smith and then the Loyalist. So within a block from each other, you have Louis Fabarini at Smith and Emily Scher at Elska buying for both of their restaurant concepts that are putting a fearless emphasis on the genre of natural wine. And so during Swaff Week, right down the street from the Plumbers Union Hall, I would say that those are two and we have plenty of great supporters of natural wine and low intervention wine. What really stands out this week are those two restaurants one block away from each other in the West Loop. So shout out to Ryan for all you're doing with Lewis and Smith.
Speaker 1:I think that the business that we've done there is exceptional and I know that it is a sometimes challenging situation because everyone wants to be in that restaurant and I think you do a great job thoughtfully communicating with Louis and really being a great beverage consultant, wine consultant to that program. So shout out to both you and Hope for that. I'm proud of the entire team of course and I'm looking forward to seeing all of you out in the wild during one of our busiest weeks f the year, 3rd Coast Soif. Cheers, guys. addendum. Dave BOS will be there too this week and sundayHank Beckmeyer from La Clarine Farm and Jose Miguel Marquez of Marenas (imported by Selections de la Vina) were also at the first soif