I am performing some due diligence and would greatly appreciate hearing your take and experiences with wine distributors in the following areas:
North Carolina
New York City
Maryland/Washington, D.C.
Las Vegas
If you’d rather send me a private email, please go ahead. Your comments will be kept confidential. I mean it.
It’s been a little less than three years for me working the streets so take my thoughts with a grain of salt. That said, I had a great relationship with Dionysus in NC and would recommend them without hesitation. We used Martin Scott in NY and sold a lot of wine through them.
We had a great experience with Palmetto in NC. Always paid on time, enthusiastic representation, nice restaurant placements.
We had excellent experience with Martin Scott in NY until about 2003. They lost most of their “young” reps and as we only distribute zinfandel (not the syrahs or whites), without the young turks on staff sales started to lag. Martin Scott is an excellent firm but I think they currently lack the staff makeup and enthusiasm to push varietals/brands that are at the boutique level for NY. We pulled back from NY entirely for a year or two, but were recently approached by a boutique distributor. We’re going with them on a limited basis, and have been very happy so far …
Our CA distributor is HarvestGate, and they rock for us. The owners live in Paso and specialize in boutique central coast wines. Drake Woodworth is a retired CEO of Technicolor, and Mary Woodworth is a retired project coordinator for Disney. They are classy, funny people with high expectations from their sales staff. Placements are tailored, paperwork is buttoned up like a Lands’ End shirt, and communication is fast, easy, and responsive. Highly recommended!