I’ve been getting a ton of boxes delivered to the office lately. Between myself and all our employees, Mr. UPS has been stopping by several times a day delivering gifts. Among all the boxes an unclaimed box sat there by itself. It was addressed to my first name (I go by my middle name and I never said Rick and I were BEST friends) and it wasn’t anything I was expecting. I just assumed it was a gift from a vendor so I opened it up. I was surprised to find a nice card from Rick wishing me a Happy Holidays and a gift from one of the companies he’s been working with, Vino.com. In the well packed box were two great bottles of wine from a vineyard in the vicinity of his office in Georgia. I’ll have to admit, Georgia is not exactly my idea of wine country but I didn’t used to think that about Oregon either and now some of my favorite wines are from there.
Like everything Rick does, it was a class act. As for Vino, they’ve gone to a “Wine of the Month” business plan which makes sense. Stocking and managing a commercial site selling wines would be tough. There are tens of thousands of brands and stocking and delivery of all these would not be easy. Starting off with the club will allow them to work with just a few brands each month. They can move to a full site in time. I have to admit, it was one of the best Christmas gifts I’ve gotten from a business. I am used to shirts, books, candies, even a jacket, but this is the first time I’ve received several bottles of wine. Leave it to Rick Latona to take gift giving up a notch. By the way, if you’re curious what a Georgian wine taste like, you can either sign up at Vino or you can come over for Christmas dinner at my house. Dinner’s served at 4.