TODAY’S REBELS OFFERING A DIFFERENT APPROACH (via Cepage Noir)

Here’s hoping that my new-found digs (as a Central Market Wine Manager) will lead to an eventual placement of these “Natural” wines here in Texas! Back in 1994, I joined a small, dedicated French-wine import company that would later change its name from International Gourmet Corp – as we moved away from including olive oils [...]

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TODAY’S REBELS OFFERING A DIFFERENT APPROACH

Back in 1994, I joined a small, dedicated French-wine import company that would later change its name from International Gourmet Corp – as we moved away from including olive oils and vinegars in our offers – to European Wine Group. Our focus was bringing to America what we discovered in the artisanal, family-owned and operated [...]

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Some Smashing New Discoveries

These past several days have most certainly inched along.  These have been ones spent working through the final pages of the business plan.  And these are the dreaded yet absolutely vital dozen or so pages known as the “financial” section, where the passionate prose takes a back seat to pure numbers; where the left-brain oriented [...]

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Big Establishment Acknowledges the Blog-O-Sphere

  Blog Update #71, 2009: Big Establishment Acknowledges the Blog-O-Sphere My first introduction to the concept of applying numerical value to a wine as a way of declaring its worth came in the Summer of 1984.  I was working as a bar back at one of the most prominent Continental restaurants of its time in [...]

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Acknowledging the Nudges, Remembering Life’s Little Tales

I’ve been witnessing from my computer seat quite a bit of fury these past few days.  Along with that, I’ve left my mind completely open to every possible opportunity that presents itself before me.  The scenarios playing out are working both sides of my brain, rendering me both exhausted and yet somehow enthused.  And I’m [...]

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Houston Wine Idealist Week II

As a consumer in this nation’s 4th largest city, I now find myself in a very different position than the one I held over the past decade.  From 1999 until very recently, I was a merchant of fine wine, offering the city’s inhabitants wines that could best be described as exclusive, esoteric selections from a [...]

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Financing the Louvre when Mona Lisa gets Tossed Out

Stop for a moment and consider the impossible.  Consider for just a moment that you found yourself the owner of a boutique business (that’s not the impossible, stay with me).  Perhaps that business was centered around the world of art.  Or perhaps you were one of the independent entrepreneurs of my time, the 1980s, who [...]

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