The June Bin-End Sale
Friday 13th June and Saturday 14th June saw the celebration of an important date in the Caves de Pyrene diary, namely our annual Bin End Sale. This provides a chance for us to sell at quite often dramatically discounted prices wines that have been a bit dormant, wines that we might have over-bought, wines that we need to move along a bit as we have moved onto another vintage and occasionally wines that we have forgotten about! (Yes, - with a portfolio of some 900 wines it can happen!). Wines and bargains for everyone - with a top price of £10.00
It also provided us with the chance to raise some much needed funds for our neighbours, Christopher’s, the Hospice run by the local charity Chase
It’s also very evident that insider trading is totally acceptable in the world of Les Caves as the staff descended upon the stacks of wine like vultures to the kill and sifted through the offerings like truffle hounds on the hunt. Phil is confident that he got the bargain of the day with his Jeroboam of Pibarnon Rose 2004 for £12.00 - rarely has someone looked so smug - whereas Stephen seemed to be investing for many years of future drinking. There was a constant exchange of information - ‘Have you seen the Greco di Tufo for £3.00 a bottle? It’s delicious! Better grab a case!’ It was also quite fun being entrusted by mates and customers alike to spend money on their behalf! So much more fun than spending your own – and so much easier.
Friday was the more earnest day with the serious bargain hunters piling into the shop, displaying a much more business-like attitude and rolling out of the door with well-laden trolleys.
Saturday took on much more of a party atmosphere. Hardly surprising seeing that Nini had organised a ‘Lamb Roast and Paella’ lunch for a remarkable £5.00 a head which was provided by Gogo’s and was delicious.
We also opened bottle after bottle for tasting - no request refused - so the tasting table was a popular corner of the room. We were actually quite controlled until Philippe arrived and decided that the sale represented the perfect opportunity for him to taste wines that he hadn’t tasted in ages. At one stage he was spotted doing a great imitation of Tom Cruise in Cocktail as he tried to convince us (and himself) that if he shook a bottle of unfiltered Saumur, that was suffering from a bit of secondary fermentation, with enough vigour and then poured it into a decanter like Basque Barman pouring Txacoli, the wine would be perfect. To be honest, he was right!
It was great to see people leave the tasting table and then go to the ‘check out table’ where Nini, Stephen and Will looked on in ever increasing horror as the stacks of wine to be keyed in grew (in adverse proportion to the floor stocks shrinking) as they laboured over smoking keyboards. It has been reported that at some stage the tortured cry of ‘Bring on the Barcodes’ rang round the room!
Pete was kept fully busy wheeling his trusty trolley to and from the car park and somehow finding time in between to take some brilliant photos to record the event.
Didier and Carlo busied themselves with pulling the cork on numerous bottles to go with the food and making sure that the drought never set in and that no one was ever short of something to drink.
Carlo then surprised us all by showing that there is certainly more than one string to his bow (or perhaps stick to his kit) by sliding behind James’ drum kit while the boys were taking a beer break and entertaining us with some well-honed jazz rhythms.
Gideon was totally in his element having joined us under the pretext that it represented a good family day out and seemed to review the food area regularly - a bit like a diligent vigneron carrying out numerous tries down the vines. As he loaded his purchases into the back of the Scenic, children’s paraphernalia was seen being flung into a corner to make room for yet another six pack.
Yvonne came along with her daughter and realized that there really is life beyond Accounts Payable and experienced life at the sharp end helping us out enormously with the less glamorous side of life – i.e. clearing up.
Music was provided by the local Band Two Fingers of Firewater, featuring our man James on the drums, whose laid-back fusion of country, blues and rock provided the perfect backdrop to the lunchtime festivities.
There was also a surprise guest appearance of Dominique Narioo (Eric’s sister) who has recorded a number of Albums under the name of Marilis Orionaa and who sung some deliciously moody French songs using the boys as her backing band - which ,considering that they are a group of country rockers, they adapted to brilliantly.
Overall the day was a resounding success. The weather was miraculously kind to us, the food was fantastic, the music was top-notch, the general atmosphere was wonderful..... and the wines...?? Well, all of you who came and made a concerted attempt to bend the back axle of your cars know about that!
Naturally, all of the effort and preparation would come to naught if it wasn’t for the fact that you rolled up in large numbers to support us - and hopefully to enjoy yourselves into the bargain. Thanks to you we managed to raise £1256.92 for Chase which is a fantastic effort.
As our sale coincided with the open day at Christopher’s there was some good interaction between ourselves and Chase and it was really nice to see so many people who had been to the open day, and also Chase Volunteers, coming over to see us and also buy wine. You do a truly amazing job!
Finally, many thanks to our driver, Anthony, who cooked us a memorable English breakfast on Saturday morning which set us up perfectly for the day ahead and then never stopped all day, setting tables up, bustling around looking after ice, clean glasses and generally clearing up. Butler anyone?
