Monday Mash Up

A totally un-themed blog post because Monday.

Jefferson Wood Experiment. The inspiration behind Jefferson's Wood Experiment Collection came from Trey spending time in a wine cooperage in Missouri. Wine cooperages are different than what you find in Kentucky as they have different treating processes, which focus more on toasting, slow cooking, and searing to bring different flavors to the forefront. It was at this point we asked, "How could we change up what the final flavors of the bourbon are after we mature it in typical bourbon barrels?" Trey started by putting 4 year old bourbon that had been aged in new charred white oak barrels, and finished it in 13 different environments/vessels.

There were so many combinations to experiment with – new bourbon barrels, new wine barrels, wine barrel heads on a new bourbon barrel, insert oak staves that have been seared, or oak cubes that have been slow cooked, etc. Over a period of 32 months, we charted the characteristics of each experiment monthly and analyzed how the different treatments have affected the outcome of the final whiskey.

We decided to bottle them up in five 200 milliliter experiments so you can try five different experiments and see for yourself how these small changes make a vast difference. Limited availability.

Survey Says. Last week, we sent a survey via email to our newest Bottle Club® shoppers. We truly appreciate all of the kind words, which we'll share on another day. We do want to address one particular comment. "It would be great if you could highlight any specials or deals that you might be having periodically via email." For our new shoppers, we ask for your contact information when you sign up for the Bottle Club®. Sometimes, it can take a couple of weeks for the information to get fully processed. Once it does, you will typically receive two emails per week, and that's where we do share some of our best sale items.

Gift Drive. Joe Canal's in Woodbridge is working with Mother Hubbard Photography to collect birthday gifts for an autistic young lady who had no one show up to her recent birthday party. The CBS News story is here. We will be collecting gift items until Sunday, June 19. Thank you in advance for your generosity.

Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey, Canal's Family Selection. The latest addition to the Canal's Family Selection portfolio is now in our stores.

Stranahan's is the first Colorado-born whiskey, hand-crafted from local, natural ingredients. Typically when a distiller bottles his whiskey, several hundred or even several thousand barrels are combined for a staunchly uniform taste. And the way we see it, we want you to be able to trust what's in the bottle, without sacrificing character. So each week we produce about 5 minutes worth of production made at some of the mass producing distilleries. We select ten to twenty of our choicest barrels, and combine them for a small batch with a reliable, yet distinctive flavor unique to Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey.

See you here tomorrow for the Craft Beer Corner.

Survey Says!

If you're a member of our Bottle Club®, you received a survey via email on Thursday of last week. The survey remains open until this Friday, 2/26. As always happens, we received a number of questions that we can address here. If you have not yet taken the brief survey, and would like to, please click here for the Lawrenceville survey, or click here for Woodbridge. After the survey closes, we'll randomly select one $50 Amazon gift card winner from each store.

We appreciate all of the positive comments regarding our staff, our customer service, our selection, and our low prices. We won't pat ourselves on the back too much here. Instead, we'll deal with challenges of various types.

A lot of questions concerned the availability of specific products, or products from a specific country. Sometimes, they are just not available here in New Jersey. Sometimes, we just don't have enough shelf space for everything we might carry. If you're interested in a product that you don't see, please ask a staff member. If it's possible, we can special order something for you.

We were also asked about delivering to homes in New York and Pennsylvania. Under the laws currently in place, that is simply not possible.

Although the comments below are divided by store, they really apply to both, so please read them all!

Lawrenceville Comments

Q: Maybe ensure that the stock is available - particularly for those who might travel a distance because of pricing.
A: We're grateful that so many people make Joe Canal's in Lawrenceville (and Woodbridge) their destination store. Many of the products that we carry are available to us only in limited quantities. For wine that carries a vintage designation, every one is sold out eventually. Seasonal craft beer is designed to be sold for a short period of time. The "angel's share" makes sure that most whisk(e)y has a greater demand than supply (we're looking at you, Pappy). So if you're planning on a special trip to our store for one particular item, while we do our best to maintain adequate stock, it's best to call first.

Q: I never see any coupons or one day sales that would bring in people or have sample tasting to decide if I like the product enough to pay the price.
A: We post fresh coupons on our website every Tuesday. We tweet another coupon every Thursday (another reason to follow us on Twitter). Click here for the Lawrenceville coupon page, but the coupons are valid at both stores. A few times per year we mail out post cards to select zip codes that highlight a few special prices, and that card also includes a coupon or two. We generally don't do any one-day sales.

We have wine tastings most every Friday and Saturday, with craft beer or other products mixed in as well. On occasion, there are unannounced tastings; check with Customer Service to see whether anything is available. As of this moment, our calendar includes 4 cider tastings, 3 craft beer tastings, 2 beer tastings, 2 hard soda tastings, and 1 malternative beverage tasting. Click here for our complete calendar.

Q: I do not like being asked for my ID when I walk in to the store on weekends and then asked again at check out.
A: Ours is a highly regulated industry, and possibly the most important challenge we face is in keeping our products away from those not legally allowed to have them. Unless an underage person is accompanied by a parent, they are not permitted in the store. That's why we ask for a valid ID as you enter the store. Our cashiers simply cannot see whether or not someone provided ID at the door, and that's why they will ask for your ID.

Q: Would like you to have an on line catalog.
A: A few comments were similar to this. In fact, nearly all of our products are searchable on our website, and we offer several ways of filtering the selections. From jcanals.com, you can sort via the Wine, Beer or Spirits pull-down tabs, which offer a nearly endless range of additional filtering options. There are always several products feature on our home page, with a "View More" option. If you know the 5-digit stock number (sku) of an item (find it on your receipt), you can search for that. You can also search by product name in the search box.

Woodbridge Comments

Q: I would like to see on the website a tab for the new beer for the week. Or the special beer for the week.
A: New beer is a difficult category to track. We get such limited quantities of some in-demand beers that they are gone that same day. This blog will feature new beers as often as three times per week. Our social media often includes new beer deliveries. Our Bottle Club® emails will feature a new beer regularly (not necessarily weekly, but we're trying).


Q: I think organization of wine by country in a store that big makes it difficult to find new/different wines if you like a particular type.
A: There isn't any sort of industry standard way of organizing the wines. Generally speaking, we sort first by country, then by region or appellation, then alphabetically. For example, we think it's logical to separate Bordeaux wine by appellation, especially because we rarely know the exact blend, making it impossible to sort by varietal, and the amount of any one grape likely won't be enough to qualify as a varietal. And our California red blends also defy categorization. Some are Bordeaux style, but others are Zinfandel based. As always, if you're looking for something new and/or different, please ask a team member.

Q: Always looking to try wines on the Wine Spectator Top 100 list and you carry very few.
A: The Top 100 list is published in November, covering wines they tasted throughout the year. You'll notice that many are from small wineries, or are otherwise of limited availability. By the time the list is published, many are already sold out, and you'll find that we're not the only store unable to get wine X from that Top 100.

Sometimes, additional supplies of a Top 100 wine are in the supply chain, and it just takes a little extra time to get to us. For example, last week we added 2015's #24 and #84. Those additions are usually featured in this blog.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to answer our survey. The feedback will help us improve your shopping experience.

Early November Grab Bag

We're going to be handling many different topics during this holiday season, which means the blog topic schedule will vary. We've always considered it required reading, so check in with us every weekday for important news and updated.

Events in Lawrenceville

It's a big weekend of events in our Lawrenceville store. It kicks off at 4pm today, with a special tasting of Laird's Applejack. Your blogger like to cook on occasion, and there are both cocktail and food recipes on the Laird's website. We recently made a Chutney Chicken, using Laird's Applejack, that could not have been easier, or more delicious.

Tonight is also Canvas Paint Night in Lawrenceville, where you can release your inner artist. We teamed up with Paint a Treasure to offer you a relaxing fun night out with friends and family! Come join us as we take you step by step through our Glass of Red Wine painting! No Experience Necessary! And you'll LOVE the painting you take home! Click here for details.

On Saturday, we'll have our regular wine tasting, from 2-4pm. Click here for the tasting menu. If you want to sample wines that might work their way onto your Thanksgiving table, you should definitely stop in.

The hectic weekend of events wraps up Saturday night with our Weyerbacher Small Plates Dinner. Five courses are expertly paired with different Weyerbacher beers. Click here for more information. Only a few places remain.

Events in Woodbridge

If you haven't been paying close attention, we have been ramping up the quality of wines that we offer in our weekly tastings. This week, we include the 95-point 2012 O'Shaughnessy Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon. Click here for the full tasting menu.

New Products

Dom Perignon Brut, Vintage 2006, Bjork & Cunningham Limited Edition. The Icelandic singer, Bjork, created the limited edition bottle and coffret with her longtime collaborator, the video artist Chris Cunningham.

Bjork and Cunningham have named their Dom Pérignon creation ‘From Earth to Heart’, have worked together on several projects over the years, most famously the video for Bjork’s All Is Full of Love single. Their design on the ‘From Earth to Heart’ limited edition 2006 Blanc coffret shows a laser-like ray of green light that appears to shine down on the bottle and pierce the glass. The shield on the bottle then reflects this light as it infuses into the wine.

Very limited availability. $174.99 in the Bottle Club®.

Ridgemount 1792 Bourbon, Port Finish. The marriage of expertly crafted Bourbon and port wine barrels join together to create this distinct whiskey. This Bourbon was aged for many eyars in new white oak barrels before spending another two years extracting the subtle, yet sweet flavors from port wine barrels.

Tasting Notes: A rich aroma of apple and fruit mingling with noticeable vanilla. The taste is soft, yet balanced. Filled with toasted caramel, jam-like fruit, and a touch of licorice. A clean, somewhat lingering finish completes the taste.

We're scheduled to receive a total of six bottles of this amazing whiskey, priced at $39.99. Please inquire at Customer Service.

Dogfish Head Pennsylvania Tuxedo. A spruce-infused pale ale, Pennsylvania Tuxedo pays homage to the flannel-suited hunters and gatherers who dwell deep in the backcountry of north-central PA.

Brewed in collaboration with family-run outdoor clothing company Woolrich, Pennsylvania Tuxedo is a sessionable concoction with a grassy citrus kick complemented by the resinous conifer notes of fresh green spruce tips. We went into the forests of north-central Pennsylvania and Georgetown, Del., to pick these fresh tips ourselves.

A dry yet doughy malt backbone lets the hops and spruce shine while still balancing out the bitterness, making this one an easy sipper. 8.5% ABV, 50 IBU's.

Domaine de la Pirolette Saint-Amour. A lovely ruby robe with flashes of cherry, very luminous and brilliant, with nice legs. The nose is crisp and delicious with red fruits (Gariguette strawberries, raspberries, cherries) followed by hints of black fruits (blueberries) with licorice and violets. Once opened, hints of white pepper appear.

The attack is luxuriously round and fragrant, reveling in the sinfully juicy taste of fresh fruit. The feel is harmonious and supple, well-balanced between richness and freshness, ending gracefully over a long finish. The ensemble is convincing, smooth and almost sensual with perfectly integrated, velvety
tannins.

Look for gamay Noir this in our Burgundy section, priced at only $14.96 in the Bottle Club®.

Ripped from the Headlines

In France, four tons of Comte cheese were stolen. And if you come in to buy 5000 cases of wine, we might have to alert the French authorities. Click here for the story.

Survey Says

In yesterday's blog post, we featured some comments, with our responses, from our recent customer survey. Here's a bit more:

Q. I specifically look for specialty and hard to find beers. Joe Canal's is one of my first destinations but sometimes I have to go to multiple places to find what I want.
A. As we illustrated above, we get extremely limited amounts of certain products. Often, like with the Pappy van Winkle bourbon family, there is significantly more demand than supply.

Q. I like that I can order and pay for my wine, beer or spirits online and it pick up in the store.
A. This great new service is currently available exclusively in our Woodbridge store. Click here to see how it works.

Have a great weekend!

Survey Says...

We recently surveyed our Bottle Club® members (that probably includes you), and there were many comments that we would like to address here in a Q and A format. The full range of comments are all reviewed by management, so know that you are heard.

Q. I would like to see a better selection of boxed items for sale at the Christmas Holiday season.
A. We can only bring in what our suppliers have available to us. The gift sets will begin to arrive in quantity next week.

Q. Do not move stuff around all the time. This wastes my time having to look for stuff.
A. We know that those kinds of changes can be upsetting. However, when we change the store layout, it's typically done to account for new and interesting products, as well as to keep the store looking fresh and clean.

Q. Wish you were located in Pennsylvania!!
A. We appreciate the fact that so many people travel a distance over crowded roads and bridges to shop in our stores. The law in Pennsylvania, unfortunately, does not allow for us to have a store there.

Q. I appreciate that you post weekly coupons on your website. It draws my attention to different craft beers or wines that I normally wouldn't seek out.
A. We hope that every shopper is aware of the coupon page on our website. You don't need to print them; you get the discount as long as we can read the coupon code on your mobile device. We also do a Twitter-exclusive coupon every Thursday, so follow us on Twitter for even more savings!

Q. Would appreciate your sale items be grouped together for convenience, don't always have the time to walk the store (even though I enjoy doing it)!
A. Because we have so many items on sale at any given time, that would simply be impossible. Sale items are easily identified by orange tags, like this:

Q. Would be helpful if you published more Wine Spectator ratings in your e-mail notices.

A. We also had similar comments about ratings being posted in the stores. Part one: the wines (or other products) don't always have ratings from a respected source (Wine Spectator, Wine Advocate, etc.). And with the thousands of products that we carry, our staff simply can't taste everything. On occasion, our shelf talkers will be posted for a vintage that's different than what's on sale. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes, as we strive for complete accuracy. Please point this out to a manager, and we will take corrective action.

We also received a number of comments regarding specific products. If you are looking for a certain item that is not on the shelf, please stop at Customer Service to to see if that is available to us. Not every product on the market is available in New Jersey (we're looking at you, Fat Tire), but we're happy to place a special order for you.

Finally, we also noted a few comments about our ID policy. Our policy is clearly posted at the entrance to our stores, as well as at the cash registers, to eliminate any confusion. We encourage everyone to become familiar with our policy, which conforms to the laws of the State of New Jersey.

We thank everyone who participated in this survey. We believe that the answers you provide will help us improve our service. As always, please let us know how we might better serve you in the future.

Survey Says...

At the end of February, we launched a customer survey in one of our Bottle Club® emails. The response was tremendous, and we'll post the Amazon Gift Card winners shortly. Meanwhile, we'd like to address some of the issues raised in the survey responses. We appreciate all of the kind words that were offered, and we'll share them with our store associates. This blog post, however, will deal with questions or concerns that you've brought to our attention.

One concern came from a customer who was looking for a warm case of a specific brand of beer. We do stock this beer, but we only sell it cold. The customer really didn't have room to keep a full case of beer in the refrigerator, and preferred buying a warm case, to be able to chill only as many beers as needed.

Light, not temperature change, is the primary enemy of beer flavor. Bottled beer, green or clear in  particular, is susceptible to "skunking" if it's been stored where it's exposed to light. From the time a beer leaves the brewery to the time it arrives at our doors, it's liable to have changed temperature more than once. For more information on beer basics, see Beer Advocate's Beer 101.

The important caveat on the temperature question is about extremes. Leaving beer in your car on a very hot summer day, or a very cold winter night, could negatively impact the beer's flavor.

Someone asked us for more rebate offers. In that regard, we rely on our vendor partners to keep us fully stocked on rebates - and we do remind them frequently. In Lawrenceville, the Rebate Center is near the exit door. In Woodbridge, it's close to the entrance, near Customer Service.

A few people commented on how our wine selections are organized. There's probably no perfect way to organize a store with as many selections as we have, but we think it will make more sense with a brief explanation.

For our international wines, they are first grouped by country, then by region. Our domestic wines are first organized by varietal (counting blends as a varietal), then they are more-or-less alphabetical within the variety. So many of our international wines are blends (Bordeaux and Rhone in particular) that it would be impossible to break them down by varietal.

Thanks again to everyone who participated in this survey. We do enjoy receiving compliments on what we're doing well, and we take seriously the opportunity to improve our service to you.