You Had Me At Merlot

Many glasses of red wine lined up in a row

May is a very special month for us here at Buzz Franchise Brands. The weather is finally getting warm enough to enjoy the great outdoors (aka the beach!), ‘tis the season of pool openings and graduations galore, and then of course there’s Mother’s Day and Memorial Day weekend. But there’s one additional holiday that could be easily overlooked by those outside our office walls: May 25th is National Wine Day. Most already know, but for those who don’t follow our social media  or perhaps are newer to the family, BFB’ers take our wine VERY seriously.

Buzz Franchise Brands has five core values that we live by: lead with integrity, be curious and innovate, empower and serve, act with purpose, and HAVE FUN. CEO Kevin Wilson has done an excellent job rewarding our hard work with fun. As an established wine connoisseur, Kevin has broadened our horizons on appreciating a good wine. Here are a few of the ways that we have extended our palate in the art of wine tasting.

Wines lined up for a blind tasting

Blind Wine Tasting Event

In February of 2017, Buzz Franchise Brands welcomed a professional sommelier to our office to host a blind wine tasting. Each tester was provided with six wines to swirl, sniff, and sip. They then had to guess which wine was which. It was definitely a valuable learning opportunity that has broadened all of our wine wisdom. We learned about wines from different regions across the world and how to distinguish types just by a quick smell! We may or may not have some amateur sommeliers on our hands after that event.

Phone rooms named after wines

The Guest of Honor at Friday Happy Hours 

Every Friday at 4pm, we gather in the café to kick off happy hour with some of our favorite wines and hors d’oeuvres (and ok, there options for beer drinkers too). Pinot noir and cabernet sauvignon are crowd favorites here, so we keep these well stocked for happy hours and any celebratory occasions that may arise. Here’s just a brief list of reasons we’ll pop a bottle of Bordeaux:

  • Promotions

  • Birthdays

  • Retirements

  • Acheiving company goals

  • Company milestones (i.e. acquiring a new brand)

  • Franchisees or other special guests visiting the office

  • And yes, Friday….

Belle Glos and Caymus are two of the wines that have made an appearance at happy hour (perhaps one more often than the other), and we love them so much that we even have phone rooms named after them!

Group holding their paintings from paint night at Muse Paintbar

Wine and Paint Night 

Most recently, this past week we had a wine and paint night hosted by Muse Paintbar. The evening consisted of drinking wine over an easel while being guided by an instructor on how to paint a masterpiece that we could all be proud to hang in our homes. We like to think that the wine helped get those creative juices flowing! 

While we enjoy the art of fine wine, what we love the most is how it brings us together. We get to celebrate each other’s wins and milestones, blow off steam after a long week, and sometimes even come up with our best creative ideas over a nice glass of red. We couldn’t be happier to have a work family that we get to experience all of this with. So let’s raise a glass to National Wine Day and pull out the Belle Glos! Cheers 🍷

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