Thank you, good night...Hello! Hello!

Saturday, May 22nd marks the end a remarkable 15 year run at Liner & Elsen Wine Merchants for me.  Yep, 15 years.  Hired way back in the spring of 1995 by Bob Liner and Matt Elsen, I was more than a little wet behind the ears.  I owe a lot of thanks to those two for hiring a guy without much experience in the wine market and little more than a basic knowledge of the wine world.  Over the next three years, I learned a tremendous amount from Bob & Matt.  Most importantly, I learned to trust my palate and to be open to many different wine styles.

In the fall of 1998, Bob & Renee Scherb bought the store and kept me on to help with the transition. Life at L&E was becoming more and more interesting all the time back in the late 1990s and early 2000s.   Bob Scherb made a series of great hires over this time; Peter Liem, Brian Martin, Pete Gibson, Eric Gorrell and Mike DeMarte while making me manager.  The store grew and thrived as well as those who worked there. From this period, through the store, I met my wife Prineet, and many of the people in Portland that I care most about to this day.

As I prepare to leave L&E, the store remains in the more than capable hands of the Scherbs and their now well established crew of Kevin Geller and Neil Thompson - two very funny guys.   I will surely miss them.  I would like to thank Bob and Renee for employing me through the last 12 years and supporting me and my family when it was needed most. L&E will no doubt continue to flourish for a long, long time.

June 1st, I begin a new chapter in my career as I open up Sec Wines.  Sec Wines opens up a new way, in Portland at least, to buy wine.  Sec Wines is an online wine shop (sorry, no inventory to fondle in my office).  But, in exchange for not being able to see and touch wine before you buy it, you can buy it for  whole lot cheaper than at a traditional wine shop.  You also need to think ahead a little bit.
The customer needs to call me (503.805.5871) for a recommendation or visit the website: secwines.com.
You can order wine right on the website or do so by calling me or emailing me (eric@secwines.com) a few days before you need the wine.  It works kind of like Net Flix; that wasn't too hard to figure out was it?  For customers who live outside the Portland area and need to have their wine shipped, this doesn't make any difference at all.  Just place an order as you normally would, only pay less for it.

I'm really excited to be trying something new after such a long time.  I hope you'll check out what I'm doing.

Eric Pottmeyer