Nick Ramkowsky and Ed Lehrman are co-founders of Vine Connections, a wine import company that was the first company to import Argentine wines to the US.

Learn more about Vine Connections with the show notes here.

In this episode with Nick and Ed, we dig into the story of Vine Connections, how it got started with a trip to Argentina, and they paint a picture of what they found down there in the early '90's. We then get into the business side of things, like what is their process of selecting wineries to work with in their portfolio, which is very small consisting of wines and sake from Argentina, Chile, Japan, and California. Then how do they approach marketing a new wine or sake to the market, what the pillars are that set the standard of how they do business, and how they work with producers like Chad Melville, who is relatively well known in the industry, but outside of the industry, many people have never heard of him and the Santa Rita Hills.

I really enjoyed chatting with Nick & Ed. I learned so much about importing wine, marketing a new product, and gained insight to the culture of a great wine company.

Sofian Himeur is the assistant winemaker at Gruet Winery, the champagne method sparkling wine producer in New Mexico.

Learn more about Sofian with the show notes here at CruPodcast.com 

In this episode, Sofian and I dig into the story behind Gruet and how he and his family came to start making sparkling wine in New Mexico of all places. He then takes us into his story, what it was like growing up in a winemaking family, working side-by-side with his grandfather at their Champagne house, and the trials and tribulations of making delicious, value sparkling in the New Mexico desert.

I really enjoyed this episode and you can really hear how passionate Sofian is not only about the wines and winery, but the legacy that his grandfather established and that he continues to shepherd along each and every day with his uncle and mother.