Bad boiler a big-money bummer for Salem wine merchant

By Amanda McGregor
Staff writer

May 15, 2008 12:42 am

—

SALEM — Eric Olson knew he was in trouble the instant he walked into his wine shop.

A wall of heat hit him when he opened the door, and a quick look around confirmed his worst fears. A thermostat malfunction triggered the boiler to blast heat all night, ruining all 1,733 bottles of wine.

Many bottles were weeping and leaking wine, which seeped past the cork and dribbled down from under the foil caps. Some bottles were almost hot to the touch.

"It was shocking," said Olson, who opened his Church Street shop, Salem Wine Imports, in December after months of painstaking design and construction work. It is nestled on Church Street in a warm space accented with exposed brick, cork flooring and rich mahogany racks for the wine. A subtle note in the window makes passers-by smile: "We just look expensive," it reads.

Olson had focused on cultivating a collection of fine but affordable wines from around the world and the country.

"It was very upsetting," he said of losing everything on a recent morning, "but in the grand scheme of things, it will be OK."

Since then, he and his son, Ben, had the arduous task of sorting through nearly 2,000 bottles of wine and discarding and replacing them, case by case.

"It's a hellacious amount of work," Olson said. "It is true grunt work."

Even if a bottle appeared to be fine, he didn't chance it. He said the damaged wine tastes dry and bitter, so he felt he had to destroy the entire collection, worth thousands of dollars.

"There is no way I could sell it with a clear conscience," he said. "I've got to sell perfect wine."

More prized bottles included $60 2003 Silver Oak Cabernet and $75 Ruinart rose champagne, but he doesn't carry anything over $100.

Olson is grateful to his insurance company, which is covering the cost to replace all the bottles of wine. Through the whole ordeal, Olson only closed the shop for three days.

"I just didn't want to lose my momentum," he said, gesturing around the shop, whose walls are labeled by country: Italy, France, Spain and more. "People have looked at me with these half-empty shelves and said, 'Are you going out of business?'"

Olson's career in the wine world was spearheaded by his proprietorship many years ago of a small shop in Marblehead called Osbourne's Grocery. Since then, he worked in the wholesale wine business and has traveled to every wine-producing country in Europe except Germany, and he's been to California about 20 times.

"I really love wine — and the people in it," he said. A winemaker friend from Italy had visited the shop the day before.

Olson contemplated retirement, but instead decided to open a wine shop. "In 'retirement,' I've gone from 40-hour weeks to 60-hour weeks," he jokes.

But he loves the business. He hosts weekly tastings on Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. and has enjoyed meeting all types of people, as well as being in downtown Salem, located across from the Lyceum Restaurant.

"People who like wine love to talk about wine," he said, "and I love to respond."

Plus, the commute is a breeze. He and his wife, Susan, live in the Salem Willows, where they moved 25 years ago from Marblehead.

"Retail is scary — very scary," Olson said. "But you hope, 'If you build it, they will come.'"

><p>

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.