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Turns Out I'm the Lowest Paid Successful National Importer in America!

My colleagues are making millions of dollars and I house my living room television set in an armoire with the doors falling off.

I'm just an honest guy, trying to make an honest living, selling honest wines.

I'd earn a lot more money in the spoof market, but I'd have to go to The New York Wine Experience, be friendly to everyone in the Wine Industry, talk endless about product and brands, and accept phone calls from the Sopexa people who tell me they are now the official promoters of the Beaujolais and I better be nice to them if I want The Wine Spectator to review the 2006 Michel Tête Juliénas. The 2006 Michel Tête Juliénas has not been on the market for two years and the Sopexa is calling me for details about the market penetration of this wine!

This morning, I fell on 56th Street while trying to clean the droppings of my wonderful new dog Zaggy. Some guy valiantly offered to help me up. My suspicion is that he is not a member of the Wine Industry, but I didn't ask him.

MasterCard has a sentimental commercial about how their are things that money can't buy. Like your children, your spouse, and your wonderful in-laws (in France they call the in-laws the "beautiful family). But let me assure my readers, selling great wine made from great terroir by creative, hard working and militant peasant/vignerons is something that can't be beat. I'm proud of what I do, even if I will never have the money of the spoof merchants.

You can't have everything. I can't even lean down and pick up dog droppings because of the neurological/muscular damage I suffered on my right foot from my brain tumor. But between Buster and now Zaggy I have had two wonderful dogs, both of whom were mutts and who cost me only a token fee when they were rescued from Kennels. They were/are sometimes wild, crazy, badly trained and uncivilized. I didn't have the money to hire first-class trainers for these two pooches and I don't care.

We don't have any great brands or products that sell in millions of case.

Thank goodness.

Not to mention my son and daughter!

- Joe Dressner 11-5-2009 7:26pm

Do you need to borrow a few bucks? All you have to do is ask.

posted by Gene 11-5-2009 8:25pm

I could use a 10-spot.

posted by Joe Dressner 11-5-2009 10:26pm

life is experience's and learning

share w/ others, help people grow

i'm way better off in this world because of you

peace

posted by real wino 11-6-2009 7:39am

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Joe Dressner - Captain Tumor Man!

Hi, I'm Joe Dressner the famous wine importer and I have brain cancer!

I already have a wine blog and frankly wine is such a luxury business that I hate to mix my cancer problems with my wine observations. I think it would be a general downer for the lifestyle crowd out there.

Furthermore, we in the wine trade always claim there are tremendous health benefits to drinking wine. I've already had cardiovascular bypass surgery over eight years ago and now I got a tumor aggressively rattling in my brain. My colleagues in the glamorous wine industry want me to keep it quiet.

So, I've started this wonderful new blog to discuss wine, brain tumors, my life and to give you hot tips on handling the cancer stricken around you. There will also be practical wine/radiation pairings when I start radiation therapy and chemotherapy next week.

Having brain cancer means I might both physically and intellectually decline. So, I will be using this blog as a venue to pursue petty vendettas against relatives, acquaintances and people in the wine trade.

I might also lose touch with reality and say things that are not true or are only half true. The important thing is to have fun and enjoy this rare and precious time in my life.

One of my pet vendettas is my cousin Dr. Barbara Hirsch. Dr. Barbara Hirsch is a very important Great Neck Endocrinologist, who was raised and nurtured by my parents. Dr. Hirsch waited until my father was near death and my mother was suffering from a rare neuromuscular disorder, to write them a seven page letter denouncing them for being horrible to her for the entirety of her life! Despite my concerns, Dr. Hirsch still refuses to apologize.

Last night, I drank a beautiful bottle of Bourgueil Clos Sénéchal 2005 from Pierre Breton. It was sublime and reminded me that I used to be healthy. Not only that, the vineyard used to be there before I existed. It exists independently of my having cancer and will continue to exist. You ought to buy some.

August 2009 Postscript: Not only does it exist independently of my cancer, it also exists independently of Louis/Dressner Selections. After 18 years, they have dumped us for Kermit Lynch. Oh well. At least I'm alive!