Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:17):
It says the Uncle Henry Show here on News Radio
seventy ten WNTM. Thank you so much for listening to
The Uncle Henry Show. Now, in this segment of the show,
we're going to talk about Wine on the River. Joe
Bullard's Wine on the Rivers coming up Saturday, October eighteenth
at the Battleship. If you've never been, it's a gigantic
wine tasting. Your best chance of the year to sample
(00:39):
lots and lots of different wines. If you love wine,
this is your event. Now we've got Michael Tigner in
the studio. Michael is with United Distributors of Alabama. Michael,
thank you for coming in, Thanks for having me. Now,
you're the guy that provides all the wine and beer
for Wine on the River.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
That's right. Well, I would say I'm not a gay,
but our company does yes.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Well well for me. For the purposes of this show.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
You are the guy.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
You are the guy. You are a wine and beer connection.
So let the listener know kind of an idea of
the variety they're gonna find it. Wine on the River.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Absolutely, yeah. So I don't know if you if some
people have been in the past, or if you haven't been.
It's good. You're gonna see a lot of what we've
seen in the past. It's probably sixty or seventy different
skews of wine and beer that will be there. They
range anywhere from here in the States to France, to
Italy to Spain, you know, from all over. There'll be
things there that are you know, the grabbing goes, the
(01:33):
little small sized fruit forward packs. Those will be there,
Like the little Andre cocktail cans that were there last
year that we're gonna have those again this year. There's
gonna be you know, cabs, pinots, sparkling, anything that you
want will be there. Fruit, I mean, fruity wines, all
the way up to your you know, hardcore cabernets.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
So now, over the last fifteen to twenty years, a
lot of us have noticed that wine has just become
so popular, I guess everywhere but here on the Gulf Coast.
If you go into grocery stores now where they used
to have a small section for wine, some stores have
aisle after isle of wine. Now is this a trend
(02:11):
in your industry? It is.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
You know, wine, like you said, fifteen twenty years ago,
was not what it is today. I every day, we
get new items and the category grows. It's insane. But
uh yeah, I think you know, between what's out there
now and what's what's up and coming, a lot of
the things are. You know, we see those small again.
We go back to the small sizes. That's the that's
(02:34):
where everybody's going. I feel like even the the companies
that you wouldn't you wouldn't expect to see a small
size out of or or a grab and go it
them out of, I feel like everybody's going that way
because it's just that's the that's the hot thing right now.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
So the hot thing now is explain this to me
and the listener. Uh so a grabbing go you're saying,
a smaller size. So instead of getting a big old
bottle of wine, people are getting smaller.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Are there there? They're drinking smaller and less or they're
drinking better and less as well, but they're we're seeing
more of that trend. Uh you know, the people that
are buying the twenty plus, the premium bottles, those are
still they're still huge or miss I mean, they're they're
out there, but we're seeing more of the small sizes
(03:20):
in every account. I mean, it's just taking off. It's
even the three seven five little splits, which I don't
we won't have any of those there, which some of
the wines that are will be there will are available
in those sizes in the stores around here mobile.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
So, so for the state of Alabama, what are alabamaan's
favorite types of wine?
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Chardonnay and cabernet. Those are the Those are the two
that run the market around here in statewide. I mean,
obviously it changes from here to Birmingham to Huntsville, but
those two skews are the biggest or the bridles, I'm sorry,
are the biggest that we've got.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Chardonnay and cabernet the most popular in the state. Now,
what about where the wines are from? Do Alabamians lean
toward any specific origin of their wine?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Most of it is domestic, you know, you get a
little bit of Italian here, specially what I see down here.
We see a lot of the Italian, you know, the prosecco,
the penutgrege is. We see a lot of that down here,
and a lot of New Zealand savnon box. Because we
have the hot weather down here, people love the Kiwi flavors.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Now I know, personally, a lot of ladies locally that
love sparkling and champagne. Absolutely is that popular in Alabama
or Lower Alabama. Sparkling wines or champagne.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Sparkling wine is one of the biggest. I would say third,
you know, behind the shore and cab Like I said,
I'll see a lot of it down here in the
southern part of the state. But yes, the sparkling still
is very, very hot.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Well, now you mentioned that there will be some beer
at Wine on the River Joe Bullard's Wine on the
River again coming up Saturday, October eighteenth. Now what kind
of beer you're gonna have available.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
There's gonna be a chandelier out of Gulf Port. They're
gonna have I think three or four items there. They're
gonna have a seasonal guava jelly that's gonna be there.
It's a it's a fruit jelly forward flavor and it's wild.
They do a really good job with it, though. They
they come out with news cues probably every quarter, so
(05:23):
they rotate them out. But the jelly is the thing
right now, that's there, that's their seasonal item. But then
they'll have their I p as and a couple of
the items there as well as bearded iris out of Nashville.
They'll be there as well.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Uh. Now, for people that are just getting into wine,
since you work with wine every day, do you have
any advice on somebody just getting into wine on on
how to how to? Of course, one piece of advice
would be to go to Joe Buller's Wine on the
River and try everything and find things you like. But
if you're not going to Wine on the River and
you're just stepping into one of the local grocery stores
like Greers that has lots and lots of wine, uh,
(05:58):
what would you any advice how to pick something?
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Talk to people that went to the Wine on the
River and see what they liked. Uh.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Okay, that's good advice.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
That's that's that would be my you took the words
out of my mouth and going going and going out
and trying these things, which I know a lot of
these grocery stores, the pigs around here, they they will
do tastings here and there, but nothing like what you're
going to see on the eighteenth. You know that that's
a huge event where you get to go and just
taste multiple items. But yeah, going into a grocery store
(06:27):
like I said, I would I like to ask around
and see what the see what the people on the
aisle are drinking. What's what you know, what they're ins
and outs of wines are? You know? So there's so
many things out there now, Like you said, when you
walk in you see it, you're like, oh my gosh.
But yeah, just asking, you know, asking people, asking for
advice and then just trying it. You got to get
out there and try it.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
So now you the listener, you can get tickets aid
wine on the rivermobile dot com. That's wine on the
rivermobile dot com. You can learn all about the event there.
There is going to be food along with the wine
and beer. There's gonna be live music. It is a
tremendous amount of fun. A portion of the proceeds are
going to be going to United Way of Southwest Alabama.
(07:07):
So that's a win win for you. Now, you mentioned
one big trend in wine is smaller sizes of wine,
wine on the go, any other trends that you're seeing
in wine.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Currently. That is really what's leading the market right now.
I mean that is from the three hundred seventy five
milliliter cans all the way up to the five room
millilater tetra PACs, I mean, and it's because there's so
many people that are putting them in those packages. It's
across the board, so everybody's grabbing those just because of
the one price to the convenience of them.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
So are you old enough to remember when wine in
a can would just be a shock that people just
to people with, Yes, they were absolutely. Of course, boxed
wine used to be a joke and now that's a
big industry thing.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
That's a huge deal too. And if it wasn't, you know,
I would say we would try probably have some box
wines to try there, but they come in such big
packages it's hard to give you that out. But uh yeah,
the box wines as well, that's they're huge. All right.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Well, Michael Michael with United Distributors of Alabama, thank you
so much for coming in and talking about the wine
you're gonna have at Wine on the River.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yes, sir, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
All right, coming up, we're gonna be taking a break
for traffic weather words from our sponsors, and then we're
gonna come back with more Uncle Henry Show. Adeline Solomon
is here from the Mobile Sanger Theater. She's got an
update on all the upcoming shows scheduled to be at
the Sanger Theater in Mobile. Some stuff coming up in January,
(08:41):
some stuff coming up in December. We'll talk all about
that with that line after the break. Let's go ahead
and take the break here on the Uncle Henry Show.