Saw Pumking and Warlock at Total Wine recently. Hopefully we'll get the full lineup. Anyone know details?
I've thought about posting a topic on this in the Beer Talk forum. I was having a conversation with a local independent bottle shop owner a few weeks ago and told him I heard a rumor that Total Wine was exclusively bringing Pumking and Warlock into the Valley. He was understandably upset, and said if it was true he would really lose respect for Southern Tier for making an exclusive deal with Total Wine. I brought up Clown Shoes, and he said that didn't bother him because he understood that Clown Shoes was a smaller brewery and was doing what they needed to help grow their presence...he wasn't thrilled, but he understood the motivation. But in his view Southern Tier is big enough and well-known enough to not need to increase their profile this way, and they're basically slapping independents in the face by taking this Total Wine route. I have to say I empathize with him, and tend to side with him on this one. What do others think?
I appreciate your thoughtful opinion but I'm just not very sympathetic with many of the independents here. If Total Wine negotiated this and the others did not, I don't see what the problem is. All too often the shoe is on the other foot and the distributors give preferential treatment to the "little guys" with rare releases and such. I've actually witnessed a distributor lying to a big retailer's manager on the phone about a release being here at all. I'm not singling out you personally, but I never hear any complaints about the little, local guys getting preferential treatment... which is probably more often the norm. There's been controversy about total wine, and others vs. the local places since about 2006 so these issues are nothing new actually. Just ask people on the inside. Anyway, it wasn't my intent to start a debate about the source. I just wanted my fellow BA's to know that such a great brewery is here for purchase. I'm looking forward to their other releases as the seasons roll on. So many good beers on the shelves here in AZ now, especially in the last couple years as expansions have occurred. Cheers.
I heard that AZ is an experimental market for Southern Tier, so hopefully if Warlock and Pumpking sell well we'll get the full line up.
