It breaks my heart to report that Max Marinucci, owner and proprietor of The Wine Connection in Pound Ridge, NY, has died from cancer at home with his wife and children He has been fighting like a banshee for months and months. I will miss him terribly.
Fuck
RIP . . .
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RIP.
Sad
Ugh, that’s terrible news, RIP.
RIP
Sorry for your loss, Sarah.
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This is so sad. The thread did bring me back. I haven’t purchased anything from WineConn (Max M) since 2012 but I did go back and re-read a number of email exchanges with Max from the 2009-2011 period when I bought a bunch of wine from him. A fun guy with a sarcastic (I like this, standard for NY) sense of humor.
Very sorry to hear that. RIP
RIP
RIP. I never met Max, but I remember him from the Parker BB. He had a vintage Fender Telecaster on his avatar, and I thought that was pretty cool. Condolences to his family and friends.
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Very sad to hear. May his memory be a blessing.
I thought I would throw in a couple of memories to Max of make him a little more real.
I was in Pound Ridge at his first store, and I had never seen him get so excited about a wine. He goes running to the back, and pulls out a Philip Togni 1992. Now Max, in general, was one laid back, slightly sarcastic dude. But when he became excited, it was total and without any reservation. I can’t think of anybody else in the industry who had this incredible love of wine, but more importantly, the hunt. We sat for the rest of that afternoon savoring that wine, and I bought the five bottles he allowed me to have.
Another memory of Max was the fake magnum of VCC 1950. Max dealt in fine wine, and I met him in 1990 at the original location, so this must have been in the mid nineties. He knew his wines, and he was pretty sure it was fake. But he decided to have a party around this bottle and if we were lucky it would be real and if not, well we had other wines. Sure enough it was fake, and Max replaced it with something equally interesting. As we’re discussing the VCC, I asked Max why he had thought it was fake.
This was well before Rudy, and Rodenstock was a fixture on the front cover of the Wine Spectator with a glass of Yquem and a huge cigar, so his wines were considered “real.”Fakes were not unknown, but far less on our radar than now. Max went point by point showing the errors the faker had made. It was an amazing performance; he was well ahead of his time.
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I am saddened. I knew Max, he was a joyous guy, with a deep love and knowledge of wine. As mentioned by many, he was sarcastic, a true New Yorker. He could be pain in the a*s, he knew it and did not apologize for it.
He will be missed.
Dan Kravitz
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Very sad, l live minutes away from Max’s store and would stop in from time to time. Max was always very gracious and welcoming
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Just sad.
Max was a character. We got along well, though I know others had issues with the man. He was almost a one man show, rigid, but he knew what he was and what he wanted. I wish he had gotten more time. I wish we had gotten more time. Riposi in pace.
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He was such a warm, generous and funny guy. Sad to hear this.
too young, Sad loss
Exactly. I’m so sorry to hear this—devastating for his family.