Storyteller Wine Company's storefront reminds me of Patrick Swayze's Roadhouse- rustic and fun
Michael Alberty, owner of Storyteller Wines, describes his path to wine shop owner as an unusual one- he was a national college debate champion, ran a morning deli shift, was a book editor and also barista who was constantly “trying to keep grunge artists who now make millions of dollars from stealing the European music magazines off the newsstand.” He now operates the wildly popular (albeit cozy) wine shop in John’s Landing.
Why the name? Alberty describes on his website:
Over the past few years I learned that I really love going out and finding great wines that have an interesting story to tell. I found that a great wine almost invariably had an entertaining story behind it. I also found a lot of boring, “corporate” wines that may have had a cute animal label and slick marketing but the story behind it was as soulless as the juice in the bottle. But being in a traditional wine retail setting I found myself constantly having to grapple with those wines while attempting to be all things to all customers. Those days are over. Now I look forward to being an advocate for good wines that tell an interesting story about where they come from. These will be wines where the passion of the winemaker and the fruits of their skills are evident in every glass. I truly believe that behind every great bottle of wine there’s an even better story.
Michael certainly tells the stories, sometimes about the winemakers, sometimes about the grape varietal, but there is always a fun story or two in his newsletter. The latest newsletter describes the history of petit meunier (i.e. the “Miller’s grape”), and how the winemaker from Honig Schlucht worked at Portland’s own Papa Haydn for ten years.
From the newsletter:
As you might have guessed by the name and location, this is not your average winery. Honig Schlucht (ho-nig shlookt) is proudly described right on the label as a “Teutonic wine company.” On the back label they even have an official endorsement from Ewald Moseler, a legendary Portland-based importer of German wines. When is the last time you saw a wine importer endorsing someone else’s wine like that? Purely rhetorical, the answer is “never.” Ewald’s endorsement is an indication that Barnaby and Olga seek to make red wines in the Germanic tradition of gracefully lighter body and significantly lower alcohol levels. To steal a line from the Drouhin family, the Tuttles are combining Oregon soil and German soul. Heck, their wines are even housed in long-necked Alsatian/German-styled hock bottles.
Scott Paul pours his Burgundy imports and his Oregon label at a recent tasting
While Michael’s storytelling abilities are great, he garnered many votes for the quality of his Friday night and Saturday afternoon free tastings. Last Friday, celebrity winemaker Scott Paul poured his Oregon wines and Burgundy imports at Storyteller Wines, which ranged in price from $18-$69- all free. In addition, Michael opened two (of only 6 on the west coast) of a $150 white burgundy for a super-pour for only $10.
A $150 Burgundy at a Friday Night Tasting? Wow!
Despite the relatively small size of the shop, there is a great variety of good value wines. In addition, the prices seem to be slightly cheaper than other local wine shops (the 2008 Haden Fig Pinot Noir sells here for $18, and we have seen it for $20 at another shop).
There were many votes for “Wine Shop of the Year”, but Storyteller Wines was the clear winner of our poll, with voters citing the quality tastings, great newsletter and friendly proprietor as reasons for their votes. Plus, Jancis Robinson tweets him occasionally for wine advice…
Storyteller Wine Company
5511-B SW Hood Avenue
Portland, OR, 97239
503-206-7029
Sign up for the newsletter at: www.storytellerwine.com
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
First I’d like to thank Bernie and Eva for all the work they put into this website and the reader’s poll. Second, I’d like to thank all the folks who voted for Storyteller Wine Company. But I have to say I’m a bit embarrassed that Bernie sent me an email with a list of questions for his article and I completely missed it in my inbox. Better late than never I guess. So here are the questions and my answers.
-How did you start Storyteller wines?
Storyteller Wine Company was first dreamt up in a long car ride in Illinois with winemaker David O’Reilly. He was coming to the wine store I ran in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois and we had a chance to chat during the ride from Chicago. He stressed upon me the importance of having a story to tell. No matter how good your product was, if it didn’t have a good story behind it most people would never give it the time of day. The more I thought I about it, the more I realized that if we found a good wine, we’d probably sell five cases. But if we found a good wine that an interesting story behind it, whether it was about the winemaker, the vineyard or how we found it, then we would sell 15-20 cases. So when I was able to finally move my family back home to Oregon the summer of 2006, I knew I could start fresh with the Storyteller concept.
-What is your overall philosophy? Values?
I like to find wines that are interesting and tell a story about where they are from. I don’t care if a wine is 10.00 or 100.00, it has to be interesting and unique. There are way too many wines out there to sort through to waste time with anything else. Hence our unofficial store motto, “we spit so you don’t have to.”
-What makes your shop different? (besides having $150 super pours at a free tasting?!)
We are only open to the public on Friday and Saturdays and about 95% of our sales are to people across the United States that receive our electronic newsletter. We are not a traditional wine retail store where you can just pop in on your way home from work to score a bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. But what we sell through the newsletter is usually pretty interesting and hard-to-get, sometimes even hard-to-get right here in Portland. We also have really low overhead so our prices tend to be lower than most in the Portland area. Price-wise Storyteller is competing against stores across the country, from K&L in California to Astor in NYC, so we have to keep our prices down to compete. But we do keep about 70-100 wines on hand in the store and folks in the neighborhood have figured out that if my red Subaru is parked out fronr, then the door is open for them to walk in and buy some wine.
-What do you love about being a wine shop owner?
I have an incredibly flexible schedule given this business model. If I need to pick up and drive to Walla Walla tomorrow, then I can do that without worrying about who is minding the store. The hunting down of new and interesting wines and then getting people excited about them is the best part of the wine business for me. I also love not working for other people. Don’t get me wrong. I have been quite fortunate to work for some folks I consider brilliant and savvy entrepreneurs, including Don Younger at the Horsebrass Pub, Doug Campbell at Bulldog News in Seattle and Jack Wallace and Dr. Geoff Bland in Illinois. But in the words of a friend of mine who started up his own restaurant, the worst day of working for yourself is better than the best day of working for somebody else. I like the fact that all the risks I take are all on me, but then I get to keep all the money. Well, at least all the money the government lets me keep.
Thanks for the “interview” Michael! Congratulations on the Wine Shop of the Year in Portland, you deserve it!!