October 14, 2016

Greetings from Carrboro,

Peter was more than a little bit crazy. Affable, but crazy. Quitting his pharmaceutical day job in RTP, he struck out on his own to find his rightful fortune in the world of wine distribution. Easy, right? Cue all of us cringing. Somehow we know that stories like this never have that planned happy ending. The joke in the wine world is that there is a lot of money made in wine – just by somebody else. But Peter was a believer. And he jumped in with both feet.

He drove around in a BMW with boxes of wine – all open and loosely corked – in the back seat. By the time he got to me, Peter had sampled the plethora of bottles that were his proffered selection du jour on more than a few other people. Even in my comparative youth (this was 20+ years ago), I understood that it was odd for him to taste each of the wines alongside me. Primarily because I knew that he had done the same with all of his earlier appointments. In all honesty, sampling a dozen different wines is daunting to do once in a day. To do so, oh let’s say, ten times in that same period is either heroic or insane. But as I said, Peter was a believer.

At the time, Pinot Noir was the absolute holy grail of wine. Well, let me clarify, affordable Pinot Noir was the daunting quest. The west coast was scrambling to figure out how to grow and produce the fickle grape of Burgundy. And, for the most part, failing. At least at a price that anyone could afford. Then one day, Peter walked in with a wine that changed all of that. It was the first wine that I’d ever tasted from Oregon. Elk Cove Pinot Noir. I was stunned. He was the first person to sell the wines of the Willamette Valley in the Triangle. The wine was a revelation. Uncomplicated and pure and delicious. And it still is, some 23 years later.

Peter is well out of the wine business now, but thankfully, Elk Cove is still going strong. To many wine critics, the winery remains the benchmark for great Oregon Pinot Noir. I had a bottle of their 1999 recently that blew me away. So I am thrilled that on Wednesday, October 26^th, Acme is having a wine dinner with the folks from Elk Cove. Yes, we will show their amazing Pinot Noirs. But we also pour a delicious Pinot Gris and their limited bottling of a scrumptious bubbly from the famed La Bohême vineyard. Think of the dinner as a reward for Peter’s unwavering faith oh-so-many years ago.