When people hear we work with wines, the usual response is something along the lines of, "Aren't you lucky!" Well, yesand no. There's a tremendous feeling of satisfaction at presenting wonderful wines from hitherto unknown vintners.

However, first we must find them. While some vintners live near towns many do not, and in my explorations we discover places not even the local tourist boards know about.

Upon arrival begins a tour of the cellars, which is extremely important, for a number of reasons. First, how clean they are says a lot about a winery - if they're spotless, tubing neatly coiled, tanks shiny, chances are that equal care is given to making wine. If, on the other hand, the fermentation tanks are still encrusted with grape skins long after the wine has been transferred into wood, the possibility that an entire lot will be ruined by a dirty tube is very real.

The visit to the cellar also provides an opportunity to learn the winemaker's philosophy. Does he/she ferment in steel? Does he/she instead use glass-lined cement tanks? Or does he/she ferment in wood - this is rare among reds, but relatively common among whites.

After the fermentation, what happens to the wine? Does it go into wood, and if so what size - botti, the huge Slovenian oak casks (used only by Italian wineries) that allow oxygen to filter into the wine, helping it to mature without loading it down with wood tannins; tonneaux, 500-700 liter barrels that surrender some tannins to the wine; or barriques, the 225 liter barrels that have a powerful influence on bouquet and flavor of the wine? Does the winemaker use a mixture of barrel sizes? And, for how many seasons does he/she use the barrels? Does he/she use them for one wine one year, and another the next, and if so, why? Once the wine is finished aging in wood, then what happens to it? How much bottle fining? All these things influence the taste of wine.

After seeing the cellars, it's a good idea to at least look at the vineyards, even if one doesn't actually wander about them. Which direction do they face? What's the production? (A vineyard with poor exposure but low yields can still produce excellent wines.) How many vines per hectare? (More is better, within reason, because it means that each vine devotes all its energy to a small number of grapes.) What sort of pest-control? (Some producers are implementing innovative, effective, and ecologically sound programs.)

At this point we go to the tasting room (sometimes an office, sometimes back into the cellars), and try all the wines, studying color, sniffing the bouquet, and tasting the wine, taking notes all the while. First, something down about the general conditions. Smell of the room? One winery's tasting room smelled like chicken droppins. Temperature of the room? Temperature of the wines? Sometimes producers forget to bring bottles in from the cellar before hand, and the wines are so cold they numb the tongue - make small talk while warming the glass in the palm of the hand. Once the wine is at the right temperature (or thereabouts), how is it? And how does it evolve during the tasting?

Since some wineries make as many as ten wines, and being drunk before lunch is not good form, we usually spit the wine out, unless it is very good. Once we are done, on to the next winery. How many wineries in a day? Depends, but usually at least two.

After a week we feel numb and our clothes are tight, but it's all worth while if we discover something that makes the eyes light up and the taste buds sing.

Having said all this, what exactly are we looking for?

Superb wines with personally, obviously.

But this is not enough:

We are also looking for wines that capture the flavor and character of the land they hale from and the vintners who produced them. In practice this means wines not made to appeal to the latest trend, but their opposites, distinctive wines made according to local tradition, with local grape types, that will caputure the hearts of those who taste them for the first time.

Wine is art, wine is culture, wine is a love affair with the people and the land. And wine is friendship; we visit each and every producer we represent each and every year. We will only add new producers to our portfolio if they are true to their history and to themselves.