France
We fell in love with France a long, long time ago…well before our immersion in wine. Reading Stendahl, Flaubert and Montaigne or Camus, Sartre and Beckett (yes, an Irishman but writing in French), one encounters the human condition, each man’s struggle to make something of value out of one’s brief existential moment. Great French wine mimics that experience.
Italy
Most people think we started our career as importers working our way through the villages of the Cote d’Or in Burgundy. But, the truth is that we launched our little enterprise with two growers in Piedmont: Luigi Ferrando in Ivrea (for his inimitable Carema) and the Anfosso family in Barbaresco (De Forville di Anfosso). It was there in the hills of the Langhe and in the shadow of Mont Blanc that we encountered the majesty of Nebbiolo and the rich culture of Italian food, wine and hospitality.
Switzerland
It has been our habit over many years to use Switzerland as our point of entry and departure when beginning and ending the twice-annual tours to visit our growers. In traversing the roads of Switzerland on our way to Alsace or to the Jura or to Burgundy or over the mountain-top of Mont Blanc to descend into Italy, we were intrigued by the sight of steeply terraced vineyards lining the shores of Lac Leman and the steep ascent from Martigny to Italy via the Grand Saint Bernard pass. It seemed that there must be good wine being produced there for the effort to plant and maintain vineyards in that forbidding terrain is immense.
Spain
We have crossed the frontier to make our first foray into the world of Spanish wine, or more accurately, into the fascinating region of Catalonia. This is a natural progression for us as it is an extension of our regional interest in the wines produced along the Mediterranean rim and Recaredo fits snugly within our portfolio of family-run estates producing limited quantities of traditionally-produced wines.
Austria
We are thrilled to begin our journey into Austria with four growers who we feel wonderfully represent the scope and breadth of Austria’s winegrowing culture. From the Stadlmann family, tending the vine in the northern Thermenregion since the late 1700s, to the pioneering Anita and Hans Nittnaus and their spellbinding northern-Burgenland wines, to the fastidious Neumeister clan in the Vulkanland sector of Styria, to young Josef Fischer and his scintillatingly mineral-driven Wachau wines from the southern banks of the Danube, these are wines which pulse with life and glow with a sense of place.