Wine Heaven?

"Wine Heaven?" by Faith Bahadurian, Princeton Packet

A recent wine club promotion in a national newspaper (yes, I still read paper!) had me tempted to sign right up, to get a case of "deep, rich reds" at bargain prices. But then I thought of how I already have too many bottles at home, languishing, while I give into my thing for gin and tonics, with the occasional margarita thrown in (not, God help me, in the same evening).

Besides, we have some great wine shops in our area, with two right in downtown Princeton, the Corkscrew and CoolVines. And it is nearly summer, a good time to stock up on rosés, which I've grown to appreciate as more good dry ones come on the market. (And hopefully the power drunk EU won't ruin rosé wine for us! The proposal discussed at the link here was fortunately set aside shortly after the article came out; obviously saner heads prevailed...this time.)

So I paid a quick visit to the CoolVines website, clicked on "rosés," and spied a pretty Cielo Prosecco Rosé, described as "A light, effervescent gem from Northeast Italy." Now that sounded festive, however it was out of stock (I'm waitlisted), But you can click on a little button under that that says "similar wines." That brings up another sparkling rosé, a Spanish Cava from Familia Oliveda (pictured here). I dropped by and picked that up and also came home with a still rosé, the French Touraine Pineau d'Aunis.

This is a GREAT website, by the way. You can click on red, white, or rosé, click on the type of body you want (i.e. light, medium, full, sweet, fortified), and then the style, modern or traditional (you know, the new world-old world thing), and the price range. The system delivers all sorts of intriguing results, and I see more wine consumption in my future...and some local shopping.

Boro mayor, merchants discuss economic stress

PRINCETON: Boro mayor, merchants discuss economic stress

By Lauren Otis, Staff Writer

Posted: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 5:11 PM EST

To survive in the ongoing poor economy, Princeton borough merchants and the borough administration need to work together, Borough Mayor Mildred Trotman told a gathering of the Borough Merchants for Princeton on Tuesday.

At the meeting, several merchants described a holiday season that was anything but rosy, although some said the impact on their operations was tempered by the continuing popularity of Princeton as a tourism and shopping destination.

”These are tough economic times for everyone,” Mayor Trotman said. “I do think that we are in this together. We are going to have to work together, the borough is ready to work with you to make it work for you,” she said.

”Most of what has happened over the past year we did not have any control over,” she told a gathering of the Borough Merchants at the Nassau Inn on Tuesday morning.

Faced with revenue shortfalls it has no control over, the borough is currently grappling with cuts and layoffs as it tackles its 2009 fiscal year budget, Mayor Trotman said. “We are going to have to make some very very difficult decisions, some difficult choices,” she said.

Mayor Trotman said Princeton Borough was attempting to aggressively position itself to benefit from the $787 billion federal stimulus plan that President Barack Obama signed later Tuesday.

”You should know that Princeton Borough has been aggressively following this, we are in touch with our county, state and federal representatives because we do have ‘shovel ready’ projects and we hope to get in on the receiving end of those funds,” she said.

Following Mayor Trotman’s address, Borough Administrator Robert Bruschi asked those in attendance “how you as merchants made out during the holiday season?”

Mark Censits, owner of the CoolVines retail wine store located on Nassau Street, said consumers were “trading down” during the holidays, purchasing less expensive wines at his store, but “the activity was high.”

”I actually feel like the town was very much alive and spunky during the holiday season,” Mr. Censits said.

”I would say my business was down 20 percent,” said Doris Figueroa, owner of The Place To Bead on Witherspoon Street. “I’m a luxury so it was difficult, I’m muddling through.”

Ms. Figueroa said her neighboring merchants were in a similar circumstances over the holidays too. “We all felt it,” she said, adding “even the restaurants in the area, and we do talk amongst ourselves, everybody felt the pinch this year.”

Ms. Figueroa said being in Princeton did mitigate her circumstances. “If the truth be told, if my store was anyplace else I think I’d be closing the doors,” she said.

”It was a challenge and it continues to be a challenge,” said David Newton, vice president of Palmer Square Management. He said business among Palmer Square tenants was down 7 percent in 2008. For the period between October and December last year, “it was more significant than 7 percent,” Mr. Newton said.

Princeton has historically been resilient in economic downturns, Mr. Newton said, but several factors, including the fact that Merrill Lynch, once one of the area’s leading employers, “ceases to exist for the most part” resulted in the local economy being less insulated than in the past. Princeton “was just totally caught unawares,” by the meltdown in the financial sector, he said.

There were bright spots among Palmer Square tenants, Mr. Newton said. He cited yoga apparel retailer lululemon athletica, which opened a store on Nassau Street late last year, as doing well since coming to Princeton.

Mimi Omiecinski, who founded Princeton Bike Tours last summer, said she was seeing a continuing strong demand for her tours, particularly among corporate consumers.

Several attendees to the Borough Merchants meeting voiced the view that the economic situation in Princeton would get worse before it got better.

”I think the vacancy (rate) at the moment is in its early days, and I thing the vacancy (rate) will get worse before it gets better,” said Mr. Newton.

”If things keep going down another 20 percent this town needs to pull together,” said Sheldon Sturges, managing director of non-profit organization Princeton Future. Mr. Sturges said economists including Nobel laureate and Princeton University professor Paul Krugman are predicting “it’s really going to get a whole lot worse.”

Kristin Appelget, director of community and regional affairs at Princeton University, and Peter Crowley, president of the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce, both said they were willing to entertain creative ways to benefit downtown merchants.

Ms. Appleget said she was open to brainstorming with merchants on creative ways to encourage the university’s 5,400 employees to “cross the street” and patronize local businesses more. “Anyone who would like to get a cup of coffee let’s sit down and talk,” she said.

”I’m an optimist and feel if one door closes another one opens,” said Mr. Crowley. He said the PRCC was working to bring talent and resources to bear on the current economic straits of many of its members, that it was seeking to “do some things that help people think outside the box, do some partnerships.”

Wine and Spirit sales resisting recession

PRINCETON: Liquor sales resisting recession

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 4:03 PM EST

By Lauren Otis, Staff Writer

As Princeton-area residents prepared to toast the New Year with hopes for a better 2009, one group of retailers had reason to raise a thankful toast to 2008 — wine and spirits merchants.

Although many customers seemed to scale back by seeking out less expensive bottles, this holiday season and the year in general has been a good one, said area wine, beer and liquor retailers.

”We are down less than 5 percent” in 2008 sales compared to 2007, said Mark Bovenizer, proprietor of Community Liquors on Witherspoon Street. “I’m pretty happy with that. People are celebrating, just not in luxurious style, not with Dom Perignon, but with an American sparkler instead, at a quarter of the price.”

At Community Liquors, “we were doing fine up until September,” he said. After the crash of the financial markets at that point, “a lot of the larger parties, larger purchasers, became smaller purchasers,” he said.

One interesting anomaly was in sales of single malt Scotch whiskeys, Mr. Bovenizer said.

”We sold quite a lot of high-end Scotch,” he said. “I had to reorder before Christmas. It was surprising how much we sold,” particularly bottles retailing for $100 or more.

Apparently the Princeton thirst for single malt whiskey was a large one.

”We’ve never sold so many single malts for Christmas,” said Laurent Chapuis, owner of the Princeton Corkscrew Wine Shop on Hulfish Street. “It is an expensive gift that people can drink over time.

”It is not a one shot deal like a bottle of wine,” Mr. Chapuis said in speculating on one possible reason for the jump in single malt sales.

”It was a very, very good year overall,” Mr. Chapuis said.

Business from regular customers was excellent, and corporate customer business was “in the middle,” neither great nor poor, Mr. Chapuis said.

He noted seasonal champagne sales were “exceptional” with customers who might balk at purchasing a bottle of wine for $40 not having any problem shelling out the same amount for a celebratory bottle of champagne.

”The only drop we’ve seen is in the high-end wines,” Mr. Chapuis said. “We specialize in bottles from $7 to $20. We sold more than ever in that category.”

”I was very pleased with the way the year turned out,” for sales in Princeton, said Mark Censits, president and CEO of CoolVines.

Mr. Censits opened his Princeton CoolVines store, located on the corner of Nassau and Harrison Streets, in August. He already operates a CoolVines store in Westfield.

CoolVines offers a $13 blanc de blancs sparkling wine from France, which is not from the Champagne region, but is a very nice wine for the price, Mr. Censits said.

”We have sold a ton,” he said. “I think people have been really elated to say, ‘wow, you can find a great product for this price.’”

Customers searching for value in their wine and spirits purchases benefit from CoolVines’ emphasis on wine characteristics and not labels, Mr. Censits said.

”That works well for us,” he said. “That is our whole point of difference. We can find great stuff searching beyond the brand names.”

Unlike other merchants, as a wine seller, he did not have to mark down his products to sell them although he spent a lot of time and effort on other types of promotions, Mr. Censits said.

At the Westfield store, “we had just as much bottle sales, but we had an 8 percent decline in revenues,” Mr. Censits said.

At both his locations, “people were trading down from a $50 wine to a $30 wine and $20 wine to $8,” he said. “What just gets clipped off is the very high end of it” for bottles costing several hundred dollars.

”People have been buying the same amount, maybe spending a little less. Overall, it’s been a pretty strong year for us,” said Chris Sletvold, store manager at the Joe Canal’s Discount Liquor Outlet on Route 1 in Lawrence. “Instead of buying one $50 bottle, they are buying two $25 bottles.”

The poor economy “hasn’t affected beer sales; high-end liquor, yes; high-end wine, yes,” Mr. Bovenizer said.

He said sales in December are likely to be down about 5 percent with sales volume affected by not just the economy, but the lack of convenient parking close to his store now that the Tulane Street surface parking lot has been closed.

Mr. Chapuis noted for the holiday season, “we got hurt by the late Thanksgiving and one less Saturday” in December this year.

One Saturday’s sales at this time of year can account for 5 to 6 percent of monthly sales, he said.

Mr. Chapuis said wine merchants shouldn’t lose sleep over outside economic forces beyond their control.

”There is nothing we can do anyhow,” he said. “We can only improve the quality and the selection. I can do only what I can control.”

Mr. Bovenizer said he already is anticipating continuing economic doldrums in 2009, having let go of one full-time employee and cut back on part-time staffing for the new year.

”If there is anything, I am holding my breath a bit as far as January is concerned,” said Mr. Censits.

Enjoying the search for the ‘right’ vintage

http://centraljersey.com/articles/2008/12/26/the_princeton_packet/lifestyle/doc494ac6d538110776343833.txt

AROUND TOWN: Enjoying the search for the ‘right’ vintage

Thursday, December 18, 2008 5:05 PM EST

By Adam Grybowski Staff Writer

When novice wine drinkers buy wine, they’re often playing a game of chance. Hundreds of choices line the shelves, sorted by region, mottled by description, marked by scores. While an oenophile seeks a select winemaker, the novice fumbles until unable to resist an attractive label.

To parse wine terminology and buck the 100-point rating system of influential wine critic Robert Parker, Mark Censits, the owner of CoolVines, a wine shop with locations in Westfield and Princeton, devised his own custom system. The goal is to provide a way for any customer to shop for wine without feeling overwhelmed or intimidated.

Mr. Censits, a Princeton resident, opened the Princeton store in August. In November, CoolVines launched a new Web site where customers can track and analyze their purchases and keep a journal. The Web site and the store are constructed to teach customers the patterns of their purchases and the qualities of their preferences, guiding them to develop their taste through experience rather than study.

“No consumer has to be a student (of wine),” he says. “(Buying wine) should be rather casual.”

A custom tag accompanies each bottle of wine offered by CoolVines. The tag is meant to help decode the information on a wine bottle’s label and simplify concepts that may elude a casual wine drinker, from its style to the fullness of its body. Dollar signs represent the wine’s price range.

“Most people have a collection, whether it’s 10 bottles or 1,000,” Mr. Censits says, adding that the price range symbol can help a person quickly recognize an expensive bottle of wine, so they don’t “waste” it on a mundane occasion.

Following the intuitive nature of the tags, the store is arranged by attribute rather than region, helping customers match wine they have liked in the past to something of similar taste.

Mr. Censits envisions CoolVines as an advocate for the consumer, and his system as a way to nurture them to sophistication. It’s a journey he’s on himself. When he opened the first CoolVines store in Westfield, he describes his stage of wine appreciation as “advanced beginner.”

“I knew a lot about what I didn’t know,” he says, sending up the breadth of knowledge a wine expert must possess. He’s closed that gap through reading, travel and contact with staff and distributors.

Such education has led him to focus on wine produced on a modest scale, as well as those made in an authentic style that truly represent the wine’s region or vintage. Bigger brand-name labels tend not to show up on CoolVines’ shelves. Such diversity requires rigorous selection.

“Very rarely have we put something on the shelf we haven’t tasted,” Mr. Censits says. “There’s more good wine in the world than we can show, so we’re constantly making hard decisions.”

A certain class of wine drinkers who seek excitement and adventure probably visit many wine shops looking for offbeat or hard-to-find bottles of wine, Mr. Censits says. “Other people latch on to us and we become their personal sommelier.”

Indeed, coolvines.com offers theme packs in which wine is chosen for you. Wine purchased online is added to a personal journal that can be rated and annotated. Purchases made in the store can be tracked as well.

Such a model helps customers trust their own judgement while building trust for CoolVines — the most important part of the transaction, Mr. Censits says. “Our shelves are a safe place to explore.”

Coolvines is located at 344 Nassau St., Princeton, 609-924-0039. On the Web: www.coolvines.com