After a long chat today with Vitor Mendez of Vinixa, a Portuguese wine export company, I left the office today wondering how the PR Grisley Co. can cope with

 the financial crisis rocking the entire globe. I really started to dwell on this after reading an article from The Wine Spectator about how wine trends will start to change during these hard times, and how here in the US consumers will start to look towards domestic wines. This is obviously concerning for us as we only work with European wines, but with the continued popularity of wines from countries like Spain and Portugal, I assumed we would be able to weather the storm a little easier than some. However, as my friend Vitor mentioned earlier in the day, many producers are still not realizing the urgency that is sometimes needed in this business. He expressed his frustrations but kept a positive attitude because he loves his job and is willing and eager to show these producers what can be accomplished with a minimal amount of change.

Similarly, the fine folks at Catavino attended and conducted seminars at the 1st Wine Pleasures International Wine Tourism Conference & Workshop in Sitges, Spain to discuss and show the many producers several ways to help their wineries. With seminars on everything from blogging, social media outlets, wine tastings and tourism, as well as collaborations between wineries and their clients, restaurants, etc., the event was definitely an experience for all attendees. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend the event, but several people who I have talked to that did attend left the conference with eyes wide open and with a very different mindset than when they entered. I hope that there will be many more of these conferences to come as the conference had a large impact on the way many European producers view how blogging among other things can be utilized to better their businesses.

With a brand new blog set up courtesy of the good people at catavino.net, I figured my first post should be about the fact that the P.R. Grisley Co. is a wine importer based out of Salt Lake City, Utah. Yes, you read that correctly, Mormontown, U.S.A. Believe it or not, it is legal to drink here if you are of age, but unfortunately it is still illegal to dance in some counties in Southern Utah. While there are too many laws to discuss in detail, I thought I’d share what it is like to buy wine here on a daily basis, especially with two Spanish friends visiting for a few weeks. Here you go-

Carlos, Emi, and myself enter a State Liquor and Wine Store to check out the selection that an average wine store has in Utah. While I must admit, we have a decent selection based on other liquor stores I have been in around the country, there are areas that are definitely lacking, which I’ll save for another day.

The point of this story happens when we went to buy our selected wines and head home for a nice dinner. The store had the A/C pumping as the thermometer rises here, so Emi went outside to save herself from frostbite. Carlos and I, being the perfect gentlemen that we are, went to pay for everything and meet Emi outside. When we approached the cashier, she asked for our I.D.’s, which is nothing out of the ordinary. We obliged, but she insisted that Emi needed to come back inside and show her I.D………..rediculous. While I went outside to retrieve Emi and her elusive Spanish passport, Carlos was being lectured on how the cashier was unable to find the birthdate on Carlos’ I.D. He pointed the date out to her that was clearly printed on his I.D., but because she was unfamiliar with a Spanish drivers liscence, she would not sell us the wine. After trying to explain to her several times, that the Spanish switch placement of the month and date when writing out what day it is, I became fed up. I kindly asked to speak with the manager, who took a glance, said ok and enjoy. REALLY? Is it that simple I thought? Needless to say, we left with several big brown bags in our hands (the mark of a boozehound in Utah) and enjoyed our wine and our dinner. I still have been unsuccessful in explaining what exactly happened at the store to Emi and Carlos, but just wanted to fill everyone else in on how some of the laws work here in Utah and how tourists view them.