Page 2 of The Name on the Back of the Bottle: Wine Importers You Can Rely On

 

Eric Solomon European Cellars Selections (www.europeancellars.com). If excellent value and excellent small-estate wines from France, Spain and Portugal appeal to you, you’ll want to try the wines of European Cellars based in Charlotte, NC. For nine years, Eric Solomon was the director of French wines and ports for Heublein before he struck out on his own in 1989. “I started in the backwaters of France,” he says, “ferreting out unknown producers, many of whom worked with nondesigner varietals and were thrilled to have someone take an interest in them. I became a talent scout, a personal trainer and a midwife. And I helped create an image,” he continues, “that would take them from obscurity to blue-chip status.”

Today his portfolio also boasts wines from an astounding 24 regions in Spain — from Yecla, Emporda and Montes de Toledo, not exactly household names — yet. “About 10 years ago, my office was inundated with samples from producers looking for someone to represent them,” Solomon says. “I started tasting everything, which was mostly unimpressive.” Until the Clos Erasmus, from the then-unheard of region of Priorat. “I was smitten,” he adds. (He was later smitten with Daphne Glorian, owner of Clos Erasmus, who became his wife.) That’s how Solomon’s love affair with Spanish wines began. Solomon was also captivated by wines from the rest of Spain, and the romance continues. Today about two-thirds of his business is Spanish wines.

Leonardo LoCascio Selections (www.winebow.com): In 1980, after he left his position as a vice president at Citibank, Leonardo LoCascio launched Winebow, Inc., the Montvale, NJ importer and distributor, which features wines from around the world. Today his Italian portfolio comprises 75 producers, many small to mid-size, many family owned. That ensures, he says, that “the grapes are cared for on a very intimate basis.” While LoCascio imports wines from the renowned viticultural areas of Tuscany and Piedmont, he’s renowned for the wines he features from southern Italy — from Sicily, where he was born, Sardinia, Campania, Basilicata, Calabria and Apulia, regions not recognized for stellar wines. He believes that finding topnotch wines there is more of a challenge, and that’s what really excites him. By venturing off the beaten path, he aims to discover wines of “distinctive character and exceptional value.” His selection of inexpensive wines is noteworthy.

In 1998 LoCascio received Food & Wine magazine’s Golden Grape Award, which recognizes “visionaries in America who are not only changing the way we think about wine but also determining what we will be drinking in the 21 st century.” If LoCascio is right, grapes like Nero d’Avola (red), Grillo and Inzolia (whites), the mainstays of Sicily, will soon be as well known in the US as Pinot Grigio — well, at least better known than they are today.

Marc de Grazia Selections (www.marcdegrazia.com): Marc de Grazia was born in Rome, but grew up in the US and Italy. He became interested in wine while attending the University of California, Berkeley. De Grazia thought he could round up better Italian wines than those at his local wine shop, and in 1980 he sent his first shipment of them to the US. New to the business, he sought out unknown producers with choice vineyard sites who were eager to improve their operations. (He has compared himself to a great truffle dog — only his job is to sniff out the best vineyards.) He nurtured these growers — first in Tuscany, then in Piedmont — so they could nurture their vineyards. De Grazia pushed strongly for modernization, and generally influences all that they do. Today from his Florence location he works with 90 small estates representing 14 wine regions. His producers are making state-of-the-art wines that are considered to be exceptional by those who like an ultramodern (international) style. His Piedmont collection, including top Barolos and Barbarescos, is formidable.

Classical Wines (www.classicalwines.com): Steve Metzler offers “authentic regional wines from grower estates” in Spain and Germany. In 1984 he founded Classical Wines based in Seattle, which Metzler calls “the non-Mediterranean Spanish wine company” because he prefers wines from high altitudes and high latitudes. He also prefers wines that are not manipulated. “I like pre-technology wines,” he says. “I like wine the way it used to be.”

He carries Lusco and Morgadio Albariños, the white wine that is the perfect complement to seafood. Metzler imports Pesquera, one of Spain’s most famous wines, as well as the other wines of Alejandro Fernández, a wizard with the red Tempranillo grape. (Tempranillo is Spain’s most important grape, and it complements a wide range of foods. The Spanish even drink it with fish.) And then there are his Cavas (Spanish sparkling wines) — Mont-Marcal and Can Feixes — as delightful as can be.

What distinguishes Classical Wines, Metzler says, is “the definition of classical: an aesthetic concept not tied to fashion. We believe in authenticity and terroir. We like cold climates, long growing seasons, transparent flavors,” he continues. “We believe in the flavor of the grapes; we don’t like overripened grapes, which is the trend. All this is politically incorrect and unfashionable, and we’re extremely proud of that. Somebody else may sell more cases, but we can drink our own wines.”

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