by Richard Harvey
“Señor de los pájaros”
Photographer: Graciela Iturbide
A Little Tale…
These days, we often experience a sense of the loss of time. This bouleversement of points of reference and daily markers can be unusual, if not somewhat unsettling. It seems that story time (which is almost always) is getting a refresh. Fiction or documentary, fairytale or hard-core journalism. Story upon story. Here’s one I’d like to share. It’s one that can perhaps give you an insider’s knowledge of the workings of a small, independent wine shop called Metrovino, and our place in the big wide world.
At the beginning, of course, there are the wines we sell made by amazing men and women; entire families! Once a year (only one harvest a year with which to succeed or fail) these farmers work for a living, for their heritage, for (our and their) future pleasure, for beauty, for the ineffable magic of wine. Sure, it’s only fermented grape juice, but this banal description hides the mystery, science and humanity of the fulsome story of what wine is all about. How does this wine “grown upon a foreign tree” get to us? Here’s just a small vignette, couched in the context of Covid-19.
Guillaume Quenard of A&M Quenard (Savoie, France)
Metrovino buys the vast majority of its wines directly from the producer, that is to say, by diligent research and expensive travel (oh! Travel!). While Alberta has a plethora of talented and dedicated importers, Metrovino is bloody-minded enough to also do much bespoke importing that defines all of us at the shop, and the shop itself. An oft-repeated phrase at the shop is “we don’t buy our wines from a catalogue”. We are involved in and aware of our purchases as they make their way to us, excited for them to start their voyage.
So, one day, a pallet of 50 dozen or so bottles awaits shipment from the winery. A trucker shows up, sometimes by navigating passages through ancient village streets in Europe that would make Odysseus quake in fear due to their narrowness. Often the truck drivers show up at inopportune times; kids and mothers wrangle pallet jacks to get the confused driver on his way. Later, he might be spending his 3rd consecutive night in his truck cab, awaiting tomorrow's collections at other addresses…
The pallet gets shifted to a warehouse, or completes a full truckload, headed for the destined coastal port. Either then or before, the wine is loaded into a familiar-looking shipping container. So many of Metrovino’s wines are such that expensive, temperature controlled containers are essential. Loaded onto a ship, this container will find its way to the Canadian ports of Montreal or Vancouver. Even for some European wines, ships carrying them might take the “long way round” of Panama and show up in Vancouver. Commercial shipments of wine do not arrive by air... they can, but at an almost incalculable added expense. You wouldn’t want to pay $40 for a wine fully worth $20, now would you?
After that, a shipment of wine usually arrives in Alberta old-school (via rail) in the city of St. Albert, the portal of importation for out-of-province alcohol in Alberta. This voyage can take many weeks; a shipment from Europe can take 60 to 90 days or more. The pallets are taken and (hopefully) re-configured for their final destination: Metrovino!
"All Consuming"
Artist: Jude Griebel
The story does not end there, as under our business model, Metrovino operates our own warehouse, where we store the substantial amounts of wine we have invested in. This has been a boon as we can weather any vagaries of supply. Thankfully, our (much younger than I) staff off-load hundreds of cases and store them in our temperature controlled warehouse. And there these liquid treasure capsules rest until desired by you. The loading and unloading of a few hundred (surprisingly dirty sometimes) cases of wine is the part of our job you don’t want!
Metrovino Warehouse
Then, it’s off to the shop, put on display and maybe even tasted with you. We always have lots of money invested in our stocks before we ask you to pay for a single bottle to try out, so the wines on our shelves are those upon which we have staked our money and reputation.
This “story”? It really is only intended to inform you somewhat how your wine gets to your table. Covid-19 has made us all more aware of supply-chains; something we really only pay scant attention to, assuming that stuff just shows up when we need it. Metrovino could just draw from the very well-stocked warehouse in St. Albert, but hey! Where’s the fun in that? How can we share our excitement and love of the diversity of wine if we don’t add to it?
But the story is also to have you consider the small-scale enterprises of the world who benefit from your support. The current (and perhaps lasting) situation of the world should make us reflect on things we value. The “small is beautiful” mantra appeared many decades ago, but it has always remained relevant, if we choose to sincerely believe it. It may in fact carry its deepest meaning in the era of Amazon and other, ever more massive Leviathans of commerce.
For you, our beloved friends and clients, we want to offer heartfelt thanks for your understanding of our story, and how we, like you, are trying to find a way to weather this storm. These days, we might fall into the belief that we have so much more to look forward to than we’re experiencing right at this moment, but I’ll leave the words of Jacques Prévert above to remind us to be richly, constantly aware of this complex world and our opportunity to learn and appreciate it more fully.
If there are more questions than answers in life, well, our brain and our spirit can always use the workout… This awareness is the basis from which we can plan for the future by being very present in the NOW.
