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