Failure or Success?

Casa di Vino will be closing this week after nearly seven years in business. Your wine & food guy has been mulling over the years passed and considering the merits of success and/or failure of CdV. In purely economic terms Casa di Vino finishes as a failure. If it wasn't we probably wouldn't be closing the doors. The economic collapse of 2008 was a serious hit to Casa di Vino's bottom line and we've never fully recovered. I'd like to believe if America hadn't fallen into our 2nd Great Depression CdV might be flourishing here in 2011. Perhaps not. One of the other reasons CdV is closing our doors is reduced market share. Iowa has no limit on retail wine licenses unlike many other states so anyone with $500 can purchase one. Although the number of wine consumers in Iowa is surely growing the number of folks selling wine has grown exponentially. How to bring more customers through the door has flummoxed minds much greater than my own. These are Casa di Vino's failures. Let's look at the flip side though.

Casa di Vino's mission statement is "to bring what's new and interesting in the world of wine to Des Moines". On this note we have truely succeeded. Casa di Vino has accumulated nearly 4000 names and e-mail addresses in our database. How many of those people have we introduced to a new wine, grape variety, region or country they'd never tried before? How many people in the metro area had tasted grapes like Tannat, Furmint, Moschofilero, Aglianico or Zweigelt? How many had tasted mead, retsina or kijafa? How many had tasted wines from the Peloponnese, the Okanagan Valley, Madiera or New Mexico. Who (including me) had tasted wine from Uruguay before???  I'd like to claim all of these as Casa di Vino "firsts". During our 7 years in business CdV also carried many Iowa exclusives including introducing the wines of Bruno Clair, Colin-Deleger, Villafonte & Wayne Thomas to the local market. We were very pleased to host California winemaker Scott Harvey & representatives from C.G. D'Arie winery. 

Casa di Vino has always been a(the?) market leader in food/wine pairings including the first to have food/wine related display racks and wine/food paired recipes. We were pleased to host food/wine classes with Alessandra Meschini, Kate Phanmaha, Sheree Clark & Ton Stam as well as wine/food pairing with our Johnston neighbor Mojo's on 86th. Who else gave you recipes for orange/cranberry relish and leek tarts, kugel, venison stew & crockpot pumpkin stew?    

Looking at things from this vantage point Casa di Vino has been a brilliant success. It has given me great pleasure and satisfaction to share and introduce these aspects of wine and wine/food culture to Des Moines. Hearing from our customers that I gave them the perfect wine to compliment their dish or meal or the perfect recipe for that special occassion is the reason I'm in this business. Casa di Vino hopes you've enjoyed it as much as we have. I don't know what the future will hold but I do know it will contain good food, good wine and good friends.

Eat well, drink well & live well,

Howard Bernstein
Owner, Casa di Vino
Wine & Food Guy,
Des Moines Wine & Food Connection. 

Comments

[Gary]

I am going to miss being able to buy wines there. Howard, you always knew exactly what to hand me! It has been a pleasure. All the best to you and in your next venture.

[Randall Grahm]

Howard, I'm so sorry that you are closing the store; your town is now so much the poorer. So important in this world to support diversity, heterodoxy; the world is not quite the same when all of the flavors are the same. I wish you the very best in whatever it is that you do next. With heartfelt sadness, Randall Grahm

[Howard Bernstein]

Gary: Thanks much for your comments and your support. I'll let you know if I resurface somewhere else around town.

All the best,

HB

[Howard Bernstein]

Randall: Thanks for your kind words. Although Casa di Vino may no longer exist in the physical world we'll continue to play around in the cyber one. Diversity is the spice of life. You continue to make the juice and I'll continue to spread the gospel.

All the best,

HB