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The thing about Grapevine Cottage that I'm proudest of is something I really can't take credit for ... the wine knowledge of our incredible staff. Since we first opened, this store has attracted wine lovers like a magnet. Over the years our staff has grown to 10, all part-time, and all wine lovers, with a wide range of wine related experience and expertise.
How long have you been with The Grapevine Cottage? I started working in the old store across the street on September 22, 2005 so that makes it a little more than four years. When and how did your love of wine begin? This is difficult to determine because in my early years of wine drinking, I appreciated a "fine" box wine, properly chilled, aka - ice cold, and preferred the spigot with a twist versus the push button type. Working in the buying office for Vons, a large grocery retailer in California and Nevada, I was fortunate to have received several samples of wine, many of them very good bottles but with a beginner's palate, dumped many wonderful, full- bodied, tannic wines down the drain. In retrospect, I would say that this is where my journey and obsession began. How would you classify your tastes in wine, Old World or New World? I am a sixth generation Californian, with my heritage dating back to the early 1800s when Spanish was the language and they didn't know there was gold in them thar hills. But to answer your question, I'm partial to California wine but love a big, ripe Shiraz or many of the Spanish wines we carry in the store. All of us have our favorites.... What varietals or regions do you feel are your strongest areas of expertise? Living in California most of my life, I am more familiar with California appellations than say Oregon or Washington. As far as varietals go, I love to compare Zinfandels and have tried most of the ones we carry. What is your favorite food and wine pairing? Usually, I just like to drink wine to enjoy it for what it is and really taste the components and evaluate the mouthfeel but recently there is a food pairing must...Spanish chorizo and any Spanish wine. The heat and spice in the chorizo really kicks up the ripeness in the wines and calms down the earthiness. What was your most memorable bottle? In 2002 I had the opportunity to travel to France for work when selling Georges Duboeuf and Antonin Rodet wines. We traveled to a small producer (10 acres) of Pouilly Fuisse. There they had for us a 1982 bottle of their production that was as bright as it was on the day they bottled it. It was unbelievable Chardonnay. Your favorite restaurant? Hands down, my favorite restaurant (if you could call a shack a restaurant) of all time is La Super Rica in Santa Barbara, California. This ain't no Taco Bell! In fact, you wait in line to place your order then wait in line to get a table...in that order. The menu, which never changes, is hand written on a chalkboard and placed in the window. Tortillas are made by hand and you can see a woman behind the order-taker rolling masa into balls, smashing them with the tortilla press then tossing them onto the grill. I always order the #6 (pasilias & onions), guacamole and extra tortillas. The food is beyond fabulous and always worth the wait. Wine isn't sold there, but a cold beer always tastes good with Mexican food. Your favorite guilty pleasure? I love old reruns of MONK. Funniest moment working here? Although not too funny at the time... I was working in the basement where we keep supplies, empty boxes, excess baskets, etc. When I was at the back of the basement someone walked by the door and shut off the light. It is really dark down there with absolutely no light and I just stood there yelling at the top of my lungs for help. Although people could hear me, they didn't know where the sound was coming from. When someone finally realized that it MIGHT be coming from the basement, the light was turned on and I was saved. Best and worst thing about working here? The best thing about working here is the opportunity to work with a bunch of great people who share my love of wine. Also, on the day that we put together "The Wine of the Month" orders, each of us takes his turn making something homemade to share with the group. We can really cook! The worst thing is living at Geist and being so far away from the store.
How long have you been with The Grapevine Cottage? 4 Years. When and how did your love of wine begin? Definitely in college, and of course it was Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill. How would you classify your taste in wines, Old World or New World? New World. All of us have our favorites … what varietals or regions do you feel are your strongest areas of expertise? Chardonnay, of course! I tend to gravitate toward wines from the Russian River area. I have made an effort to educate myself with other white varietals. I know some of you may find this hard to believe but, I do love red wine as well. I am sure I have sold you a bottle or at least tried. What is your favorite food and wine pairing? I have a couple. I love a great steak and Norton Privada or Marquis Phillips’ S2. On the other side, I love summer sausage, sliced pears, grapes, sharp cheddar cheese and a big buttery Chardonnay. What is your current favorite bottle? Gary Farrell is my current favorite. If you have never visited Gary Farrell Winery, you should. Their tasting room has a view of the mountains and surrounding vineyards making the experience quite relaxing and fulfilling. Don’t forget my love affair with Catena Zapata Chardonnay — it is awesome! What was your most memorable bottle? Many factors make a bottle of wine, memorable. Even the least expensive bottle of wine can create a memory if the company is right. Sharing wine with my co-workers is the best!!! Your favorite restaurant? Jeff Ruby’s in Cincinnati, Ruth’s Chris in Indianapolis or Magnolias in Charleston S.C. Funniest moment working here? Working with Dr. Tom. He makes everyone laugh. (How about the snow, Dr. T?) Best and worst things about working here? Hands down, the people I work with make this the best place to work. There are days, however, that I need to borrow Bob's gun. (My fellow employees will understand this, lol). I would be amiss if I didn't mention our customers. I look forward to greeting you and try very hard to remember names … there are a lot of you and only one of me. Please don’t be offended if I have to ask your name more than once.
The worst thing about the job … so many wines and not enough time to drink all of them. Interested in French wine? Talk to Paul Johnson — you can even ask him in French! In 1976, I returned to France to teach English under an I.U. exchange program and it occurred to me that I really ought to try to learn more about French wine and cuisine on this trip. My girlfriend (and present wife) had brought along a paperback, Guide du Vin by Raymond Dumay, and in the month of down time I had before classes began, I read and re-read it until I practically had it memorized. Soon I was splurging our meager bankroll on Medocs and Beaujolais that cost over a dollar a bottle! I bought a case of Burgundy at an auction for $28. The hook was set. For two years, our travels took us to places with exotic names like Bordeaux, Gigondas, Beaune and Riquewihr. We look forward to doing it all again soon. Mark Finch is our resident Mac Guru... he's the guy responsible for everything from preparing our cookbook to print to managing all the point-of-sale materials here in the store. Mark is our resident "value expert," and can show you where all the bargains are. What do you do in the real world? Printing, publishing and public relations. I did public relations and lobbying for the Indiana highway industry for eight years, then owned a printing company for 17 years. I still do some print advertising, publication and Web design, and freelance writing. How long have you been with The Grapevine Cottage? Since March of 2002, after a brief stint as production manager of a newspaper in Grand Cayman. When and how did your love of wine begin? My parents often drank Almaden wines with dinner when I was growing up. Each wine had cartoon pictures of the types of animals whose meat they were supposed to be paired with, so I learned that early on. Later, when I was a high school senior, my friends and I found that we could go into liquor stores and discuss wines for half an hour or so with the clerks and not get carded when we eventually bought some. I ran through a lot of Black Tower and other crockery-bottle Rieslings then, and still have an empty fish-shaped bottle of Antinori white Tuscany wine for fish, vintage 1967. After that came a Boone’s Farm phase. My first purchase of a case of “real” wine was Sebastiani Barbera, vintage 1976, which I bought from Louise Kahn. I still have the wooden box. How would you classify your tastes in wine… old world or new world? I try to appreciate every wine for what it has to offer. I drink both old world and new world wines, but find that I am buying a lot more European wines than I used to, particularly Rhônes. But if I were banished to a tropical island where only one type of wine was available, I would prefer that it be new world Bordeaux-style blends. All of us have our favorites…what varietals or regions do you feel are your strongest areas of expertise? Rhônes and other red blends, Spanish Reds and Zinfandels. I try to keep up with Chardonnays and Sauvignon Blancs too, but Doug buys them faster than I can drink them. I’m not a good person to ask for a Beaujolais recommendation – Gamay is one grape I just don't appreciate, no matter how often I try. What is your favorite food and wine pairing? We eat a lot of lamb, which I like to pair with a Rhône or a Malbec. A Grenache with grilled wild-caught salmon is mighty good, too. Or Riondo Prosecco and Eggs Benedict for Sunday brunch. Or beef tenderloin and a Bordeaux blend – it's impossible to pick just one! What was your most memorable bottle? Two bottles here: The 1993 Barolo that my wife, Katz, and I drank on our tenth wedding anniversary in 2003 was absolutely fabulous. Equally memorable was a split of a 1963 Meursault that her grandfather gave us – improperly stored upright on the top shelf of kitchen cabinet for 35 or so years, amber-colored with little floaties in it, and stunningly – and unexpectedly -- delicious with rich flavors of vanilla and caramel. Your favorite restaurant? The Lobster Pound Restaurant in Lincolnville Beach, Maine. For Sunday brunch, Portofino Restaurant in Gun Bay, Grand Cayman. Your favorite guilty pleasure? These days, I prefer that my pleasures be of the “not guilty” variety. I’m pretty sure that all my unindicted co-conspirators feel the same way. Funniest moment working here? That may have been when Tom Landshof sought me out when he needed a “tall guy” and out of the four people working that was me. I can possibly stretch out to 5’7.5” on a good morning.
Best and worst thing about working here?
The best thing is all the great people I’ve met here, on both sides of the counter. I’d say my least favorite task is packing the Wine of the Month boxes, but our new tradition of having a homemade gourmet lunch afterwards makes it a lot more tolerable! How long have you been with The Grapevine Cottage? It will be 5 years in August.
Where did your interest in cooking come from? I remember loving to bake ever since I was in elementary school, and I suppose my interest in cooking evolved from that. My mother and my grandmothers set the example as they were all wonderful cooks, but it was my father who perhaps had even more of an impact on me. He had such a zest for life and a curiosity and interest in trying new things, including food. In a time and a place when most of us thought it couldn’t get any more exotic and exciting than Chinese food, he was always looking for the next taste sensation. I still remember the Christmas he decided to fix a goose stuffed with chestnuts and sausage and who knows what else. He was so excited about it, but I’m afraid the rest of the family wasn’t quite as thrilled as he was by his Dickensian fantasy. We just wanted turkey with our usual stuffing! But he set an example that led me to seek out new culinary experiences and to want to learn to prepare these foods at home. When did your love of wine begin? It was my husband who first developed an interest in wine and he’s the one who encouraged me to expand my wine horizons beyond sweet whites. Strangely enough, this is a rather recent development since it’s only been in the past 10 years or so that I’ve discovered there’s a great big world of wines out there and that I love most of them, particularly the reds. It really is never too late to learn to appreciate new things. Old or new world? Hmm. It wasn’t long ago that I was only interested in new world wines, but I think I’m now beginning to appreciate those from the old world, particularly French and Italian reds. There are times when I find that “fruit forward” isn’t always what I want. Favorite varietals/regions? California Cabernets, Oregon Pinot noirs, and French Rhônes. Favorite food and wine pairing? Cab and cow, of course! Most memorable bottle? With my increasingly faulty memory, my most memorable bottle is usually the one I had last night! But there are a few that stand out. One is the Gaja Sugarille 2001 that my husband and I drank to celebrate our first attempt at homemade charcuterie. It was the perfect complement to Bresaola (an Italian classic) which, happily, was decent enough to eat. The second was a 1989 Vouvray from the Loire Valley that we drank in 2008 at my husband’s 50th birthday dinner at Picasso in Las Vegas. This was a revelation to someone (me) who rarely drinks whites. A 19 year-old white that had aged and mellowed into a light golden color, wonderfully viscous in the mouth, with a nose of ripe stone fruit and honey, beautifully complementing the perfectly prepared scallops with Jus de Veau. A happy memory all the way around. Favorite restaurant? Out of town - Americas in Houston, The Ninth Door in Denver, NoMI in Chicago. When I’m home I like Oakleys and Amalfi, and I head to either Sullivan’s or Ruth’s Chris when in the mood for a great steakhouse atmosphere. A new favorite is Siam Square in Fountain Square when the need for Pad Thai hits and I‘m not in the mood to fix it myself. But the best place in town is the Grapevine Cottage on the day we put together the Wine of the Month Club boxes. We take turns bringing in lunch and I think I work with some of the best chefs in Indy. Funniest moment? Sorry, but I’ve been sworn to secrecy. And I’m still laughing…. Best and worst things about working here? The best thing …how can there be only one? I have a terrific boss. I work with wonderful people who have become dear friends and who are as passionate as I am about good food and wine. I work at a store that has the most wonderful customers in the entire state. I get to go to the Fancy Food Show in New York City every summer (have I mentioned that I have a terrific boss?). And I get a discount on wine (so now the real truth comes out.) The worst thing? Handing over my entire paycheck to pay for all the wine I take home. Also, dusting and vacuuming the store! You might call Jim Bandy a student of wine! I think he may have the most well-rounded palate of any of us. Ask him about Argentina or his many trips to Napa….
What is your current job in the real world? Corporate sales for Western Union Global Business Payments. How long have you been with The Grapevine Cottage? I joined the team a few months before moving to the new building. So I think I’m in my fourth year. Time really does fly when you're drinking... I mean selling wine. When and how did your love of wine begin? Advertising was where my career began, and when I began drinking wine. (Ah…a slice of pizza and cold Rosé from a box — lunch of champions!) Almost 20 years ago, I took a challenge from a wine retailer who offered tastings in my Southern California neighborhood. I started off saying “I really don't care for red.” He replied “Give me six months and see if that holds true.” After trying new things every week or so, he was right. I think that laid the base for my continued exploration of different wines and styles of wine. Even at home now, we regularly try new things and find new “friends.” That's one thing I enjoy talking about with our customers: seeing where their taste preferences are, and finding out if they’re interested in trying something different. How would you classify your tastes in wine… old world or new world? I like to equate wine styles to music: I think of old world style wines as being much like a string quartet — good background for food, usually balanced, and well-grounded (my new substitute phrase for Terroir). New world wines, though, are the Jazz and Rock bands: spotlight grabbing, toe-tapping, and not always willing to share the stage with food. String quartets have a special place in my heart but I more frequently listen to Jazz and Rock. All of us have our favorites…what varietals or regions do you feel are your strongest areas of expertise? New world reds and Champagne/Sparkling are my strongest suits. What is your favorite food and wine pairing? This is quite difficult as my favorites change often. Right now, it’s braised short ribs with Napa Cabernet, or peppered rare Ahi Tuna with Schramsberg’s Mirabelle. What is your current favorite bottle? I’m fickle and admit it. Last week it was the Duval-LeRoy Champagne (Paris bottle). And next week, I’m not sure but I can say for longevity, I’m a HUGE fan of Hewitt Cabernet. What was your most memorable bottle? 1996 Dom Perignon. Your favorite restaurant? I travel a great deal, and therefore dine out frequently. When I’m at home, though, my favorites are Oakley’s Bistro, The Meridian, and Capital Grille. Funniest moment working here? It was too funny when...um...I almost forgot: What happens in the back room stays in the back room. Best and worst things about working here? The worst thing about working here is wanting to load up my car every night with new things to try but recognizing I have to be sober some time. Some of my favorite times at GVC are when I’m helping customers pair wine with their menus. It merges my love of food with all the different wine varietals and expressions we carry at GVC. After publishing profiles of all our staff members over the last nine weeks, I was getting a lot of comments like "OK, now we know your staff... how about you?" Here are Linda's and my answers to the same questions…. I'm Doug Pendleton, a/k/a The Wine Guy, a self-proclaimed title. Actually, I'm just a guy who has enjoyed wine most of his adult life. And having to make a career change at 50 gave me the rare opportunity to choose to work with something I enjoyed. That's when I decided to open the kind of wine shop I always wanted to shop in.
When and how did your love of wine begin? It began with a trip to Sonoma in 1974, but the real epiphany occurred in 1981 over a bottle of 1977 Sterling Reserve Cabernet someone ordered at a business dinner. I came home from the trip and scoured the town until I could put together a full case. Of course then I had to have somewhere to keep it... then you just can't have just one case...you get the drift.... How would you classify your tastes in wine… old world or new world? I have been accused of liking everything, and for the most part I do. Part of the fun here is that Linda and I get to try such a wide variety of wines. Having to review wines means we never get in a rut of going back to the same style or brand every time. The truth is, I try to appreciate both old and new world styles, but my first love will always be California reds. All of us have our favorites…what varietals or regions do you feel are your strongest areas of expertise? New World wines are what I know best. I really only began to focus on old world wines ten years ago, so I am way behind many of my customers. I have loved drinking and learning more about Italian and Spanish wines. However, experiencing Bordeaux and Burgundy is almost a lifelong undertaking, and at today’s prices I don’t think I’m going to catch up. What is your favorite food and wine pairing? A blue cheese topped filet grilled medium rare with a bottle of Cabernet is still number one, but Osso Bucco with a bottle Allegrini Palazzo Della Torre is a close second. What was your most memorable bottle? The six liter bottle of 1982 Kenwood Artist Series that my friend Danny Lipco brought from California for Linda's and my wedding...she'll fill in the details. Your favorite restaurant? That would be at home… the menu changes every night and we love the wine list. Oakley's does a great job and we love Joseph Decuis in Roanoke, Indiana but it's kind of a road trip. Actually, we eat more lunches out than dinners and there's nothing like a burger in the courtyard at Cobblestone Grill. Your favorite guilty pleasure? Seeing Linda (the world's best wife who was actually supportive of this investment) behind the wheel of our 2002 Aston Martin Vantage DB 7 - V12 (the real guilty pleasure) ... hey, this investment can't do any worse than my IRA.... Funniest moment working here? There have been so many of them…the classics are tasting wine with the winemaker and he asks you to be honest. It happened once with a Chilean Sauvignon Blanc... the wine smelled like cat pee from two feet away but the winemaker really, really, really wanted to know what we thought. We told him...he has not been back.... The most recent was when the lady who had just selected a $300 mixed case of some of the biggest Cabernets and Shiraz in the store turned to Tom Landshof and asked which one would go best with Tilapia. At least he was honest when he told her she should "go buy some steaks." Best and worst things about working here? The best would be actually getting to know my customers. I spent most of my 40 years in retail behind the scenes, which is why my office now is behind the counter.
The worst, fighting to keep from gaining weight around all this great food and wine.
Linda's real career is leasing and managing medical office buildings. Developing new buildings and the general "care taking" of much of Community Health Network's real estate needs. It keeps her way too busy to spend much time in the store anymore. But, she spent every Saturday with me for the first 3 years we opened. Although she's not here often, she is still my secret weapon behind the scenes. All those "What We Thought" reviews in the newsletter have a lot more to do with her nose and palate than mine. Five years ago we held a ten bottle blind tasting that we invited people to test their palates by identifying the wines grape varietal and matching it to its magazine review. 150 people tasted and tried the wines, and only two people got all ten right... both were women, and one was Linda. What is your current job in the real world? My real job is as a Vice President over Real Estate and Retail Services with VEI, the for-profit division of Community Health Network. How long have you been with The Grapevine Cottage? From the very first moment Doug thought about the idea. When and how did your love of wine begin? I'm not sure if this made me love it immediately, but my introduction was in about 1983, when my mentor at my first job in commercial real estate, George Charbonneau, gave me a bottle of Chablis and Bordeaux as a gift. Unfortunately, I do remember thinking that the Bordeaux would be better chilled! How would you classify your tastes in wine… old world or new world? Well, I'm still more partial to New World, but my tastes are New World with a throwback to Old World. I don't think I would have known what a Rhône was 15 years ago, and now it is my "go to" Red...but that is also because the French ones have changed their style to be a bit more "New World." I love the crisp, unoaked Hendry Chardonnay (yes, I really do like white wine), but realistically, it isn't as true of an "Old World" style white as I think it is. What is your favorite food and wine pairing? I really do think my favorite food is pizza...usually something involving a very thin crust, and interesting ingredients like artichoke hearts, black olives and maybe goat cheese...pair that with super Tuscan like the Monte Antico Sangiovese Cabernet-Merlot blend and I'm in heaven. What was your most memorable bottle? A 6 liter of 1982 Kenwood Sonoma Valley Artists Series Cabernet that we served at our wedding reception – it was the very generous gift of our friend, Danny Lipco (who brought it with him from Bakersfield, CA – I think he even had to buy it a seat). He sent us a label in advance, and we matted it and used the matting as our guest register. The matted print and the empty bottle still sit in the kitchen as a reminder of an unforgettable day (where we sat up the camera on timer for our photo). And we still have a couple of bottles left that we plan to open on a few more wedding anniversaries. Your favorite restaurant? Home, preferably on the deck! And we really don't go to eat out that much...except on vacation, so I'd have to say Grandma Dot's and Trader's on Sanibel. Your favorite guilty pleasure? A couple of good French subtitled movies and a very lazy Sunday afternoon with rain (or just pull the blinds and pretend it is raining outside). Funniest moment working here? This is more of an amazing moment…a number of years back, Doug had a Zionsville customer approach him because her brother was making wine in Oregon and she hoped he would try it. We’d had several “homemade” wines brought by before, so we were a little dubious, especially when her brother finally did come in on a Saturday morning carrying his wines in a cardboard box. So the first amazing thing is that we had the time to taste wine on a Saturday morning (probably wouldn’t happen today, would it?) and still wait on customers, but the more amazing thing was that every single wine we tasted seemed better than the one before. Doug, our co-worker at the time, Jim Mathias, and I kept tasting, and then looking at each other saying “this is amazing…who is this guy and how do we get his wines distributed in Indiana"? Well, in case you haven’t figured it out, the wines were Sineann and the winemaker was Peter Rosback, and the rest is pretty much history for us! Best and worst things about working here? I can't really claim to work here much anymore, but it is still the interaction with the greatest customers around — as well as the very competent and enthusiastic staff. |
How old are you? The Wine Geezer is 70 and proud of it.
What have you done in the real world? I have been a Travel Agent for 36 years. I owned and operated a travel agency until 9/11. I still sell travel, and now I am always looking for a travel opportunity with a vineyard in mind.
How old are you? 45.
