A Tribute to W. Edwin True
by Jane Garvey

This Thanksgiving marked the unexpected passing of one of Atlanta's most devoted wine professionals, W. Edwin True, III.

Ed endeared himself to customers and colleagues alike with his enthusiasm for wine and for his eagerness to spread the word about the pleasures of wine enjoyment. He wrote newsletters and gave talks; he traveled with groups and didn't limit them to wineries, but also showed them the jewels of European culture and civilization. More

The Taos Winter Wine (and Ski) Festival
by Greg McCluney

January can be a pretty slow time on the wine scene. As I researched material for my next Wine and Travel column, the answer came right into my mailbox in between all the bills and junk mail. It was about the Taos Winter Wine Festival held every year in January.

And why not? Winemakers like to ski, too, and they really aren’t very busy in January. Winemakers attending Taos have a chance to ski all day and pour their wines at night—all on the expense account! More

Introduction to Wine, Parts I or II
Wednesday, January 3rd (SOLD OUT)
Monday, January 8th (12 seats avail)
Tuesday, January 9th (10 seats avail)
Piedmont Room, Midtown
This course is the beginning of your relationship with wine--it will move you from viewing it as a "social beverage" to one of a liquid encyclopedia. In addiiton to engaging teachers, you'll be tasting at least 8 wines in every class. More Info

WineStyles Perimeter Place is seeking to fill two positions:
The Part-Time Wine Sales Associate is an hourly + commission position; the Assistant Wine Store Manager is a salaried position. For complete job descriptions and details on applying for the jobs you may download information here:
Asst Manager (both are Adobe .PDFs) PT Sales Associate

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• The Year's "Best of " Lists
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He understood perhaps better than many in the business that this beverage we jabber on about isn't just a "product," a term he probably never used with respect to wine, but a reflection of timeless heritage, culture and craft. Not that he put wine on an altar of any sort, but the highest complement he could pay a wine was that it made him "see the face of God in a bottle." And he enjoyed the range, from the simplest picnic quaff to first growth Bordeaux.

If customers came back to Ed when he worked in retail, it was because he not only understood wine, but also because he bent to their personal palates. "We don't sell wine," he used to advise his staff. "We solve problems." At Ed's memorial service, that former colleague recalled that sage counsel and acknowledged that he relies on it to this day.

While he often pushed his customers to sample wines beyond their experience at any given point, he also sought wine that would please a customer's tastes. And he always respected constraints of purse. In fact, finding a great value was one of his priorities, because service was uppermost in his mind.

So when he moved from one store to another, fans followed. And customers became friends.

When I visited one of the stores where he worked and had a now-grown nephew with me, Ed scooped up the then toddler and dotingly carried him around the store as we selected wines and placed them into my cart. He embellished a simple wine-buying trip with warmth and personal charm, creating a memory.

Later, when I got into the business of writing about wine, he happily served as a font of information and encouragement. As I made sad phone calls to friends in the wine world to tell them about Ed's passing, more than one acknowledged that Ed had been a personal mentor. What he knew he shared, with no restraints.

Over the past few years, we didn't talk every five minutes, but we didn't have to. When we did, it was as if no time had elapsed since our last conversation. And that conversation might have been about wine. Or about medieval European architecture. Or Hildegard von Bingen, a cd of whose music I own today at his insistence. Or politics. Or coffee. (No one will ever forget that carefully never-washed coffee cup!). But whether we took up right where we left off or started a whole new line of conversation, there never was a lapse in the chatter.

A great gal pal, Ed was there with flowers and an invitation to dinner when a mutual friend and often customer of his ended her long marriage. Struggling to get over her shock when I told her of his passing, she began a litany of memories that included that story.

W. Edwin's influence on my life, and I think on others' lives, has been and will always be the keen sense of exploration in this world of wine, and an appreciation of how wine has a place at the table full of all of life's graces.