Tag Archives: Brian Sharoff

Top-notch holiday wine buying advice never goes out of style

Call this the blog’s newest holiday tradition — the Wine Curmudgeon opening a bottle of sparkling wine live and in one take. And I don’t even have any initials after my name. The original post ran here.

So solid holiday wine buying advice, which is always welcome. Click on the Watch on YouTube link to see the video; it’s age-restricted because we’re talking about alcohol.

Many thanks to host Michael Sansolo as well as everyone at the Private Label Manufacturers Association who put this together. Even better, they didn’t laugh too hard at the WC’s reaction after being told he would have to wear makeup.

Would that we had been able to continue the series, which was going to focus on buying quality wine at the supermarket. But the world intervened, as it often does.

And, as long as we’re on holiday wine suggestions, a shameless plug: First, a 12-month subscription to the blog (discounted, of course), as well as the cheap wine book.

Plus, opening a sparkling wine bottle in just one take

Yes, this post ran about this time last year, but I wanted to put it up again for a couple of reasons. First, it’s timely — and a damn fine job, if I say so myself. Many thanks to host Michael Sansolo; his show is “Shopping with Michael” for the Private Label Manufacturers Association.

The other reason? Because this was the only video we did as part of the PLMA’s private label wine project. Our goal was to convince U.S. supermarkets to do for private label wine what European supermarkets do — high quality and low price.

But the pandemic edged our effort to the sidelines. And, more sadly, long-time PLMA president Brian Sharoff died at the end of the spring, and it was his vision that started the project. Brian gave me a chance to work on it, and I will always be grateful for the opportunity.

So, I’m posting this one more time for Brian. He is much missed, and not just because he always made fun of my hats.