Issue: A bottle of pickly wine that made me look stupid
Anger Factor (out of 10): 3
Mission: Get one or more compensatory bottles of wine
Mission Difficulty (out of 10): 2
For Bonus Marks: A signed letter stating I'm not an idiot and Canadian wine is great
Status: Complete Success!!! SYNOPSIS
A simple project that I think is going to meet with great success. I bought a bottle of wine. After telling a lady friend that Canada makes great wine, I opened the bottle poured glasses. The wine tasted like pickles, and I was forced to eat my words. I'm not sure which was harder to swallow. I know that in the wine business, sometimes a bad bottle happens, but neither the customer nor the vintner wins when ill-will is allowed to fester. Messrs Jackson and Triggs signed their names to that bottle as a guarantee of quality. I have a good feeling that they're going to back up that guarantee. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Step 1: Letter to Company President
On February 1, 2004, this letter was sent to a President and Co-Founder of Jackson-Triggs Vintners Mr. Allan Jackson
President
Jackson-Triggs Vintners
2145 Regional Road 55
Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON
L0S 1J0 Dear Mr. Jackson, I'm a simple man writing with a simple request. I recently purchased a bad bottle of wine - hardly the end of the world, but combined with my boasting about the quality of Canadian wines, it made me look like a bit of an arse. With your help, I would like to correct the tarnished image of me and of Canadian wines held by my drinking companion (a very attractive young lady from Cincinnati). It was late at night and a bottle of Proprietors' Selection Cabernet Shiraz was the only wine in the house. My date eyed me sceptically and asked if Canada even grew grapes. I went on perhaps a little too long about the booming Canadian wine industry and all the success it was having in the market as well as in international competitions. As luck would have it of course, I got a bad bottle, which I understand happens from time to time. It tasted distinctly of pickles. I tried decanting it, which took it from a full blown Polski Ogorki down to a Bick's Baby Dill, but it was still pretty much undrinkable. I still say there's good Canadian wine out there. The young lady of course thinks I'm an idiot. I need your help to prove her wrong. The Last Angry Young Man is a web-based initiative (www.angryman.ca) dedicated to focussing anger and turning it into productive action. We identify maddening issues and incidents, assign them an anger value and set measurable goals against which we can measure the productivity of our actions. In this case, the pickly wine incident was assigned an anger value of 3 out of 10. Receipt of a substitute bottle would be considered a partial success. A full success would be the receipt of more than one bottle of wine. And this initiative would be considered an overwhelming success if in addition to the wine I received a letter stating that Canadian wine is every bit as good as I say it is and I am not an idiot. I truly hope we can both restore our images in the eyes of a young woman from Cincinnati. I'm Adam Scott, the last angry young man ----------------------------------- THE SUCCESS STORY
On February 18, 2004, in response to my letter, Mr. Allan Jackson sent me the email below (he used all caps, but he's a kick-ass wine baron so I'll let it go). It confirms what I suspected all along: wine people are good people and Canadian wine people are some of the best. Not only did Allan come through for me, he handled it personally and with great humour. This is exactly how the Last Angry Young Man projects are supposed to work. A healthy dose of anger, tempered with some humour, focussed on a practical solution that makes everyone happy. So let's raise our glasses to Mr. Jackson and Mr. Triggs (I'm assuming he's just as cool). They put their names on the bottle and they stand behind their product. Cheers gentlemen. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LETTER FROM ALLAN JACKSON
Date: Wed, February 18, 2004 4:24 pm
Subject: COMPLAINT ADAM: I JUST NOW READ OF YOUR UNHAPPY EXPERIENCE WITH OUR CAB-SHIRAZ. MY APOLOGIES FOR YOUR LET-DOWN. FROM YOUR DESCRIPTION, I AM QUITE SURE THE BOTTLE YOU TRIED SUFFERED FROM A DEFECTIVE CORK, CAUSING THE WINE TO HAVE "CORKED" CHARACTER, HENCE THE PICKLES EFFECT. FOR THIS VERY REASON, WHEN YOU TRY A MORE RECENT BOTTLE OF J-T WHITE LABEL, YOU WILL NOTICE THAT WE HAVE SWITCHED TO SYNTHETIC CORK CLOSURES. TO EXPEDITE THIS TRIAL PROCESS, IF YOU DROP INTO *** BANK ST, IN OTTAWA, YOU WILL FIND AN APOLOGY WAITING UNDER YOUR NAME [SCOTT AS OPPOSED TO ANGRY]. PLEASE GIVE US 24-HOURS TO SET THIS UP. I WON'T BORE YOU WITH ALL THE DETAILS BUT CANADIAN WINES ARE WINNING HUNDREDS OF MEDALS THESE DAYS IN INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIONS. ALSO FOR BOTH 2002 AND 2003, J-T WAS THE SINGLE BIGGEST SELLING WINE BRAND IN CANADA, IMPORTED OR DOMESTIC. SEVERAL MILLION CANADIAN PURCHASERS CAN'T BE ALL WRONG, CORRECT? AS TO YOUR FRIEND FROM CINCINNATI, SHE LIKELY THOUGHT WE WOULD RESEMBLE, IN TASTE, CERTAIN OHIO WINES THAT I HAVE TRIED [AND SUBSEQUENTLY TRIED TO FORGET]. SORRY WE LET YOU BOTH DOWN. I AM SURE THERE'S A GOOD LIMERICK IN THIS STORY SOMEWHERE, A LA THERE WAS A YOUNG LADY FROM SOUTHERN OHIO, BUT IT ESCAPES ME FOR NOW. I'LL LET YOU FINISH IT. THANKS FOR TAKING THE TIME TO INFORM US OF OUR PROBLEM. I GENUINELY DO NOT EXPECT THAT YOU WILL ENCOUNTER IT AGAIN WITH OUR NEW CLOSURES. HOPEFULLY, YOU ARE NOW THE LAST NOT-QUITE-AS-ANGRY YOUNG MAN. ALL THE BEST, allan jackson --------------------------------------