Basically, three main sources plus a number of miscellaneous sources.
The big source is of course 28 years in the business plus 15 years of wine and beer making before that. Imagine 2 questions to be answered every business day for all that time. Now 2 questions a day would be a slow day, so thats really a gross underestimation, but it gives you a good idea. The knowledge acquired over the years is like an inverted pyramid – it gets passed down to employees and customers. If we don’t have an answer on the spot, we’ll dig it up. There is no point in B-Sing!
Then there is Google. Wow! It was not too long ago that such a wealth of information was not so easily available. Nearly no matter the subject matter, there is a web page out there that will offer an answer.
Of course, there is also the New York Times Book of Wines. This resource has been used by us for a long time. Here we find 1100 pages of wine types, regions, quality etc too numerous to list. Unfortunately it is out of print. Fear not, our copy is well insured!
Then we have other sources such as magazines and TV – and I am a nut case for Discovery and the History channels. Plenty of good information can be found in these mediums for those interested!
– Armand