Hand Picked Selections sold

It is with very mixed feelings that I announce the sale of Hand Picked Selections, a wine business I founded in 1985.

The goal of the enterprise was to sell wines of character and above average quality for below average prices. That goal has never changed.

After 35 years, I began negotiations to sell it to Sunil Khanna. Sunil had worked for HPS for over a decade and was my right hand man. He is American, with an Indian father and French mother; his grandparents owned a vineyard in Languedoc. He put together an extraordinary team. Sunil is now the CEO and a Managing Partner of Hand Picked Selections. There are three other partners.

The other Managing Partner is Chris Desor. Chris brings to HPS a long, highly successful career in the U.S. wine market, deep wine knowledge and a plethora of positive contacts throughout the entire industry.

Two of our finest and most important suppliers are also partners.

Jeff Carrel is a winemaker, a tirelessly innovative magician whose wines seamlessly blend old world character with new world freshness and fruit. Les Darons is the best-seller, but he provides us with a wealth of other fascinating and delicious wines.

Andre Einaudi is a self-made French industrialist whose companies are crucial. Ortec, his primary business, is responsible for maintenance of France’s nuclear power plants. In 2019, he purchased Commanderie de la Bargemone, already a benchmark of Provence Rose that he is taking to new heights. Planted in the coldest terroir of Aix-en-Provence, the basic Rose has been one of the best-selling, best reviewed Estate-bottled Provence Roses in the U.S. for decades.

I remain employed by HPS as a consultant. I am sad to leave my ownership and management roles, but also happy to be relieved of responsibilities.

Over 37 years, there are two days that stand out in my memory:

12/26/1985 was the best day. I crunched the numbers and realized that I could afford to pay the warehouse to unload my containers. For the first year, I was receiving containers with 800 cases floor stacked, and unloading them by myself, by hand.

10/18/2019 was the worst day. Donald Trump imposed tariffs on French and Spanish wines. I laid off four of my sixteen employees, the first and only layoffs in the history of Hand Picked Selections.

HPS came through the pandemic in good shape. I cannot imagine a better team than the one in place today to continue and grow the business of discovering fine, interesting wines and selling them at fair prices.

Please join me in wishing the new owners of Hand Picked Selections a long, happy and prosperous continuation.

Dan Kravitz

Best of luck, Dan. You built a wonderful business and deserve to enjoy life outside of HPS. And great luck to the new ownership

Dan - Congrats on an incredible run. It is always great to see an orderly succession.

+1

I hope your (mostly) exit from the business won’t mean your departure from WB. I always value your posts here.

Piling on. I always enjoy reading your posts here, which reflect your enthusiasm and love of food and wine but with zero selling, stage makeup, or artifice.

Congratulations, Dan. Your wines have given me a lot of pleasure. And I’ll second everyone else about reading your posts. Enjoy semi-retirement.

Wonderful for you Dan, congratulations

Dan, I trust that you leave your business with a feeling of pride and accomplishment. I am sure you have a bunch of memories to keep you going for a while. Well done. -Jim

PS If your hear the faint sound of glasses clinking from far away around six this evening, it will be Jacqueline and I toasting you with our dinner wine. We will open something nice.

Congrats and good luck in your next phase of life

Sounds like you left it in good hands. Now isn’t retirement GREAT?

Congratulation, and all the best to you in the consulting gig, and ultimately I presume, full retirement. I knew that I could always rely on HPS to provide an interesting wine!

Well… I have a sneaking suspicion that Dan, like many of us, will be a big failure at retirement!!

Congrats, Dan, on stepping back. Sounds like you’re leaving the place in good hands!!

But don’t forget your WB friends. We appreciate your contributions here.
Tom

Congrats Dan! We have crossed paths a few times at NJ-PA offlines and have always enjoyed your insight and wine knowledge.

Enjoy the slower pace!

Tom

Congrats Dan - best wishes to you and to the new caretakers of the enterprise you founded!

Congrats Dan! Best of luck with your new endeavors.

Dan,

Congrats on your successful handoff of all you’ve built over the years. Wishing you all the best as you transition away from all you’ve built.

Thanks for sharing the update and I’ve appreciated so many of your selections over the years.

Congratulations Dan! I’m glad to hear I will still be able to rely on the HPS label to steer me to good wines when in doubt. I guess it’s good that you remain a consultant but I would love to see your notes on ‘your’ wines.

Dan - Congratulations. Wish you joy as you make the transition.

Perhaps you have more time to hike Katahdin. I regret not having joined you on one of your annual hikes - with plastic water bottles filled with Pegau.

Congratulations Dan on a spectacular run. I drank and tasted many Hand Picked Selections and can definitively affirm through the hazy fog of memory never regretting pulling one of your corks. I tasted with you on a number of occasions when I worked retail on the East Coast and you were always a gentleman, always a pleasure to see, and always passionate about wine. Cheers! And please keep posting your notes…always insightful.