Copyright 1996 by Robin Garr. All rights reserved.
Locating a rare or hard-to-find wine is always a problem, because wines aren't evenly distributed across the U.S. or around the world. A lot of smaller California wineries, for example, sell only in-state, or distribute to only a few larger states around the country.Some consumers have an additional challenge if their state laws forbid direct shipment to individuals, especially in states (like Texas) where the Alcoholic Beverage Commission is notoriously aggressive about going after wineries and distributors who try to sell by direct mail-order. Many shippers are reluctant to challenge this system, although others are quite willing to ship in plain boxes -- at the recipient's risk.
Your best bet in seeking that hard-to-find wine is to go to the biggest and best wine shop near you and ask the wine manager to look up the label for you. If it's available through the regular distribution channels, they should be happy to special-order it for you if it's not in stock. (And, frankly, if your local shop won't provide this simple service, you might want to reconsider giving them your business.)
Second-best bet: For domestic wines, contact the winery directly and ask whether they'll either sell to you at retail or at least let you know if it's available in some place where you travel often. You'll find a List of U.S. winery addresses among the WineFAQs on the Wine Lovers' Page. For imports, try contacting the U.S. distributor. (I try to give this information with my tasting notes on all the wines I report here.)
Finally, if neither of those approaches works, you might start surfing to the commercial sites that sell wine online and see whether they'll take a Texas order for this item. There are lots of them; you'll find at least a few linked from my Favorite Wine Links page.
I hope this helps a few of you out there. I know how frustrating it can be to want a favorite wine and not be able to find it!
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