Untangled Vine

Ok, I've been busy, really busy. We, as in Langdon Shiverick in Ohio, have been bought. This is a very exciting and positive time for us.We have a cool new name (see above logo, my brother Brad and his cohorts designed this graphic). If you could build the perfect wine distributor, how would you do it? What sort of standards would the distributor be built upon? We had an existing portfolio, but what needed to change, what needed to stay the same? We felt there was a gaping hole in the Ohio wine market, and we had some strategies on how to fill it. We came up with 5 ideals. These ideals we felt could only work with a small, quality-driven distributor, and we are that company. we hope to get bigger, that is , sell more wine. We want to be the biggest advocates for our artisinal producers. Not a new company for big commercial brands to use and abuse. We belive in dancing with the person that you brought to the dance, or however that phrase goes...

The following is an excerpt from our launch party's program last week. I thought I'd copy and paste, and launch it into the blogoshere.


A birth, or maybe a rebirth. We are pleased to announce the beginning of our new company, of sorts. We are, and have been a Fine Wine Distributor, servicing Northern Ohio. Today began as a dream 9 years ago as Walt Wirth came to be hired by David Shiverick of Langdon Shiverick Imports. David, a Cleveland native, wanted Walt to build to new heights an existing distributor as a conduit for his acclaimed Import portfolio. Walt grew the company under the promise that one day, David would sell the company to him. As Langdon Shiverick grew, so did the sophistication of the market. Walt looked increasingly to new world producers to supplement the already strong French, Italian, Spanish and German portfolio. Not to mention adding a sales and warehouse team.

So today, we celebrate anew Walt’s dream coming to fruition. With the help and support of the Bananno Family, we will look forward to the future. Walt has created such an impression upon many of our producers, that we had no difficulty filling the restaurant with some our favorite Wineries from California. We set forth to become a new Fine Wine Wholesaler. We will build ourselves on Five Attributes, characteristics we all hope to portray and strive towards.

o Integrity- We promise to be forthright, honest and dependable. We will also display unrelenting loyalty to both our clients and our suppliers.

o Enthusiasm- We will make our enthusiasm about wine infectious.

o Education-As we are constantly educating ourselves, we will be a resource for those striving to learn about wine

o Ambassadorship-Translates to a twofold approach to care of product. First is the careful custody of all wine so that it travels from Cellar to glass in optimal condition, the second is the inexorable pursuit of the perfect portfolio, continually searching for the most exciting producers.

o Participation-Continuing support of the local food and wine community. We will offer conributions at every level and for all purposes. With with singular goal to better our partners and thereby the community.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 11, 2006 at 11:25 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.