My name is Lauren and I have a deep, unhealthy need to Always Be Right. I don’t know if you caught the little exchange between Lloyd and the mysterious Kristina (not Lloyd’s sister) a couple of days ago regarding the Sommerau Castle Riesling wine. Whatever. Water under the bridge. Let’s get to MY story.
(A quick recap, if you don’t want to read the old post and comments. We got a bottle of S.C.R. as a gift, with a real cork and everything. Lloyd liked it. He looked on the internet for it – nowhere to be found. I went to HyVee in Lincoln – there it was, but in a screw top bottle. (That’s important to the story.) It’s inexpensive – $5.something. I buy it, we drink it. Weeks later a lady from Prestige Wine Group. com writes to tell us all the available places in Nebraska to buy the wine, and that we could have checked the website, which is printed on the bottle. We find that the website (www.sommeraucastle.com) is only printed on screw top, not corked. Lloyd writes back and says so, and also that searching for ‘Sommerau Castle Riesling’ gets people to our site, not theirs. Funny, huh? Back to the rant.)
I went to Lincoln Friday afternoon with Annette to get some stuff, and we stopped by the HyVee grocery store at 40th and Old Cheney to pick up some wine. There were some gentlemen/wine dudes having a meeting of some sorts and one asked if we needed help. (Helpful smile in every aisle and all that.) He directed us to the chilled section, where my cheap wine was a dollar more than I had paid previously. I said I’d pass, but thanks very much. Somehow it came up that I have bought my bottle at the HyVee on north 27th, and it was a screwtop and we discovered that only the screwtop had the website and blah blah blah. He seemed shocked that I said ‘screw top’ and obviously didn’t believe me. Not a problem. He left, Annette and I kept wine browsing, and then he came back to tell me that he had just talked to one of the wine dudes and they said that Sommereau Riesling didn’t come in a screw top bottle. The ugly Need To Be Right reared up inside, and I wanted to scratch his eyes out, but instead I just said, “Well, I have the bottle.”
Do you know what I need to do? Do you know what I’m fighting not to do? Do you know that the desire to march up to him tomorrow and shakily present him with my screw top bottle is an almost all-consuming compulsion? It’s an illness, people!!!
Brad says
Maybe the original makers of the wine are right. Maybe all the bottles they produce DO have the website. Maybe the other one is a knock-off that is made in Japan. Does the label have any phrases like “This wine happy good joy times”?
I think this calls for more research. To Japan!
Deanne says
I’m going to Japan. I’ll look for it. Maybe they have the knock-off version in the German side of Tokyo. (or maybe there is no German side of Tokyo)
Kristi says
I think it’s time to bring Joe Hurl back into the equation. He might be able to shed some light on this mysterious bottle. Take the bottle to HyVee and show it to the Mr. Wine and Mighty! Take him down a screw or two!
Annette says
The thing about paying so much for wine is that it’s like toilet paper and tissues—all consumable!
Peggy says
Yes, you must definately take the evidence & present it. Go to both stores. DO IT TODAY!! You may just possess a rare bottle worth millions, dear old friend of mine!
Annette says
Nick says, “the customer is always right!”
Annette says
His mom says, “he never lets anyone have the last word.”
Sam Noel says
I read your article as I had purchased a bottle of the same wine. It had a screw top. Was in the same store, Hy-Vee, the next day and looked at the wine. All were screw tops, EXCEPT ONE, that was corked. I suspect that the bottler is changing the packaging for the product.
Lauren says
Yeah, I’m torn on the whole cork/screw top issue. Corks, without a doubt, are much more stylish than screw-tops, but I can store leftover screw-tops on their side in the fridge without spilling it all over. I’m glad you like the wine, Sam! Welcome to Lloyd and Lauren!