The basement turned out to be an extensive wine cellar, home to Andy’s most coveted wine collection. Row upon row of bottles lay carefully filed on their sides, separated by vintage and other important details known only to him.

Seeing water leaking from heating duct over his head he quickly reached up and pushed edges tighter together to see if he could seal off leaky area. Instead, duct opened with a long squealing sigh, separating like a rhino’s jaws sending gallons of water gushing over wine bins and flowing down to lowest section of floor knocking over a row of shelves nested there. There, in lowest, darkest, coolest cave-like opening was Andy’s most precious and newly-tasted collection of wine. Picking up bottles one by one, handwritten labels began to slide off.

More and more labels became dislodged and before long, there were labels floating everywhere.

After a few minutes Andy stood back and took stock of situation, there was only one thing to do. And it was urgent.

We needed to taste and grade wines as soon as possible, before he forgot content of each of bottle’s washed off labels. And, which bottle was which.

We set up our tasting table near shelves of now label-less wine bottles. Andy would choose bottle, write down what he remembered about label contents and we would all taste wine, commenting on flavors, acidity, etc., all things a wine connoisseur might want to know. We pressed on through afternoon into late evening, until last naked bottle had been tasted and Andy had completed his notes in his journal. All in all, we had tasted our way through about 27 bottles of wine.

We had no business driving back to our motel in condition we were in, but we were wet, exhausted and probably getting on nerves of our host by then.

After a few days we received a most gracious note from Andy, thanking us for our help and fortitude. The house was almost back to normal, and waterbed had been replaced with an airbed.

We wondered, could he risk blowing himself up with one?

In 1992 company went public and after initial public offering, Starbucks continued to grow at a phenomenal pace that no one had ever seen in coffee world before. By 1997 number of Starbucks Coffee stores grew tenfold, with locations in US, Japan and Singapore.

Starbucks initiated several successful product and brand extensions including offering coffee on United Airlines flights. They also began selling premium teas through its Tazo Tea Company and offering people option to purchase starbucks coffee online to enjoy at home.

They began distributing whole bean and ground coffee to supermarkets through an agreement with Kraft Foods. They also produced premium coffee ice cream with Dreyers. Starbucks even sold CDs in its retail stores.

Starbucks began turning its name into a household word not through advertising but through word of mouth. In fiscal 2004, Starbucks opened a record 1,344 stores worldwide. The once small regional roaster, Starbucks Coffee Company, now has more than 9,000 locations in 34 countries serving over 20 million customers a week.

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