Geez, no sooner did I post my article on the Big Kahuna wines (to read that article click here)  than I pick up the morning paper (yes, I still read our local paper) and see the following headline: “Checking out: Fresh & Easy parent may shutter stores”. Yikes! No more Big Kahuna. It seems the Fresh & Easy stores have run up losses of something like $2 billion (now that’s a lot of Big Kahunas) and the parent company (British owned grocery giant Tesco) is likely to exit the U.S. market. Well, I would like to report now that there is absolutely no truth to the rumor that the lack of a glowing Underground report on the Big Kahuna wines was the final nail in the coffin! But, maybe a clue to the company’s problems was the 2 different wine notes Fresh & Easy published on each Big Kahuna wine.  Oh well, I guess we will never know.  For the Big Kahuna, it’s a wipe out! R.I.P

 

But,  never fear Virgin’s here! The same day that I am saying bye bye to the Big Kahuna, I get a notice from Virgin Airlines to buy mail order wines from them. A week or two ago I got a similar notice from Zagat. Maybe it’s something in the water? But they both look very much like the mail order wine business the Wall Street Journal has been offering for some time (to read my article on the Wall Sreet Journal wines vs. a selection from Costco and Trader Joe’s click here).   I’m just waiting now to see who else joins the party.  From Zagat  to Virgin Airlines to the Wall Street Journal, this is quite a diverse crowd. Let’ see where this is all going. Who’s next? JC Penny? Petco? Chevron? Warren Buffet? Big Foot? Alfred E. Neuman? Go ahead. You take a guess. Your guess is as good as mine!

In Vino Veritas,

John Tilson