I used to say, rather sarcastically, that there is no such thing as a wine emergency.

The idea being that far too many sales reps run around like chickens without heads solving emergencies that don’t qualify as emergencies.

And in the big scope of world problems and social issues, a restaurant running out of a wine by the glass for a day or two hardly ranks as front page news.

However, I bumped into a good friend, a wine sales rep, last week after hearing about an epic 12 hour will call (6 hours up, 6 hours back) to help make sure one of his restaurants didn’t run out of wine.

It wasn’t just any restaurant, it was THE restaurant in a vacation heavy region that does 90% of their business during the summer months. Basically seven weeks pays for the other forty-five.

And it wasn’t just any day of any week. This was coming up on the Fourth of July weekend.

And it wasn’t just one wine that may be out of stock. It was a vast majority of the wine list, due to an ordering and communcation error that resulting in them not getting their product in time.

When I heard the story and the epic mega will call, I said “Well, that was for sure a wine emergency.”

My friend, the rep that ran the delivery to help keep a key customer afloat in wine for the most important weekend of the year, brought clear insight. “It wasn’t my fault, but it was my problem.”

Well said.

h/t JL