Life of a salesman: Week 1: Introduction

"We're adding a little something to this month's sales contest. As you all know, first prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired."

With these words Alec Baldwin's character scares the life out of his sales force in the classic 1992 film Glengarry Glen Ross. Forget performance-related bonuses and share options, this is one way to incentivise your employees that gets the message across.

Things may not be quite this bad for the UK's wine salesmen and women but it's instructive to watch how the current economic doom makes us sit up and pay attention. It was all mildly entertaining when it was about bankers leaving Canary Wharf with cardboard boxes and stunned expressions, but now the crunch has turned into a crisis/catastrophe/cataclysm and threatens our pockets and - shock horror - our jobs, it is no longer a laughing matter.

The idea of this weekly blog is to give a personal view of the wonderful world of wine, mixing in some news and observations in what I hope will be a coherent way. I'll try not to go on about the credit crunch too much - I think I speak for us all when I say it makes for rather depressing reading.

Starting with something a bit more upbeat then, last week's big trade tasting was the Farr Vintners 2008 Christmas Tasting at Vintner's Hall. On show were Krug's and Dom Perignon's rosés - both good but do they really deserve their enormous price tags? The Domaine de Chevalier Blanc 2002, billed by Farr as "Bordeaux's answer to Grand Cru white Burgundy", was a fantastic example of the top class whites that Bordeaux can produce. The Clos du Marquis 2000, the second wine of Leoville Las Cases, promised great things (it has been described by Robert Parker as "one of the great sleepers of the vintage"). Of the Vins Doux Naturels, the 1956 Rivesaltes (Cave de Rivesaltes) was the pick of the bunch and remains surprisingly fresh.

Hope to see you next week!

Guy Seddon sells wine for Albion Wine Shippers and writes about it at The London Wine Mine.

• Harpers Says...