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Big Time Wine (BTW)...
The 'Bored-Room' Creation
In 2008 I was seated around a large 'bored-room' table - along with a lot of similarly branded people possessing arm length titles yet unfamiliar faces - for the third time that week. Listening to these 'experts' ignorantly waffle through PowerPoint presentations, or conversely plead almost teary excuses as to why things weren't happening, I doodled on a white pad with a black felt tipped pen.
I wasn't quite sure when the changeover had occurred. When we had sold the soul of the company we had all striven so hard to build from the dust. That same company we had built strong. Demanded quiet respect for. When we had sold all of this out for the corporate mercenaries now providing naught but meetings for our past blood, sweat and tears. That's what happens I suppose... the soul is sold for its thirty pieces of silver.
I guess it was an epiphany of sorts for me. When I knew I no longer wanted to be a part of what all our hard work had become. I didn't want to crunch numbers. I didn't want to give people the excuses they needed to give someone else... as they bunkered down and waited for a pay day that only time in one place would bring. I didn't want bonuses that weren't worked for or earned. I wanted the soul back and I wanted to deal with real people again.
As I doodled I found the dots became lines. The lines became shapes. Shapes became a name and that name became a logo. By the end of that week I no longer had to pretend to listen to others around that table. Big Time Wine was born...and I was off to build it a soul.
Then, Now & Tomorrow
I've spent over 20 years in the liquor industry in one way, shape or form. (I'm pretty sure some medical practitioners would consider this alcoholism!). I began as a glassie in a country pub, in a large rural town, earning about .13c an hour for emptying ash-trays; scraping bubble gum off carpet; and carrying dregs back to the oak benches from whence they began. The bathroom cleaning aspect of the job wasn't fun... but 'staffies' was pretty good!
I then spent 5 years training with Woolworths and Coles - learning and understanding the retail industry. This ran its course though once I realised that these retail giants like boxes and manuals. They preferred thinking and work practices within the square and heaven help you if you climbed the fence of that square and dared contemplate thinking outside of it.They have too much power, encourage humans becoming robots and have way too much power for a market our size... but that is a different topic for a different page.
I saw a niche in independent hotels and bottle shops. The independent sector had lots of opportunities if you had an idea and a bit of get up and go about you. Hotels in particular.
Alas the hotel industry changed in the mid to late nineties, with poker machines and gambling becoming the demi-god of the trade. It was a golden time if you happened to own a hotel... and made sure that if you didn't own a hotel by then, chances were you never would.
So, left with the decision to become a managing 'bar-fly' for about forty years or find another ladder to climb, I selected 5 companies I thought were on the way up in the world. I wrote a letter to each of these five, receiving one reply, and from there I set out on a wine journey. McGuigan Wines was the company... and the other 4 all offered me jobs at some stage down the track, which I politely declined of course!
BIG TIME WINE & CITY CELLARS
City Cellars came under my care not too long ago. It is situated in the Sydney CBD right next to Darling Harbour on Lime Street, King Street Wharf.
From here Big Time Wine was born and now services Australia, hopefully with the same soul McGuigan Wines was built upon all those years ago.
Big Time Wine and City Cellars are different beasts.Yet essentially they are bound with the same rope. That rope is me - Tosh - and hopefully it is a rope that many will grab on to and be dragged along in the fun wake we hope to create. I really don't want it to be 'enough rope' of the other sort!
So grab a strand, hang on... and get ready for the 'Big Time Winer' ride of your life - even I don't know what is going to happen!
CITY CELLARS is our retail partner. It is a beautiful, cool little shop in Sydney's Darling Harbour/King Street Wharf precinct - 54 Lime Street, Sydney CBD to be exact.
Make sure you drop in and say 'G'Day' when you are in the area - I'll probably be there. If you'd like to check out CITY CELLARS - CLICK HERE and visit the web site.
... This is my catch phrase (normally spoken in a subcontinent accent). We live our lives by this mantra, encouraging our Big Time Winers to do likewise!
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You can order in any number of ways:
1. BIG TIME WINE Website... Perfect and the easiest way for all concerned. Paypal accounts make it even easier for all of us. Use your Credit Cards through Paypal too don't forget.
2. DIRECT DEPOSIT ... Simply email us with what you after. We'll send you out our bank details, you deposit the cash and we have your wine or whatever it is you ordered with you in no time.
3. CHEQUE... A bit antiquated and old school but if that is what you prefer - no problemo. Let us know what you want via email, we'll give you the quote, you send the cheque and then once it has cleared we send the stock out.
We are happy to work with you of course in any way, shape or form we can. You can find out more by clicking the 'How To Order' image above.
TRUST TOSH...is a link which comes directly to me if you would prefer me to hand select your wines, to meet your budget, and be delivered to your door.
I think it is pretty cool really - pretty much your own wine broker on call - and much better than many wine clubs where they simply take whatever leftover wine that couldn't be sold, from wineries in the local region, call them 'premium' and then ship them off to you at very much premium prices for stock no one wanted in the first place.
Best thing about the TRUST TOSH mechanism is that I personally try all the wines that we sell. If I don't like them they don't get in - simple. (When I say like them I'm not talking about personal preferences, more that they reflect the regional standards from where they come from, as they should - quality).
Also... if you don't like wines I pick from you - tell me. It's the best way we can get to the core of what your tastes are and knock your senses out of the park with each new mixed or straight dozen you buy.
What better way can you think of to get to know each other than over beautiful wines, great prices... and some fun along the way!?!
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