drink wine more sustainably
five wine importers to help you choose better wines
Wine importers are an excellent way to get a more complete sense of what kind of wine you’re about to drink. Most wine importers have a specific taste, so if you find one (or five) that you jive with, then it’s like having a sommelier friend who always gives you the best wine recommendations.
Shopping by importer helps you buy more strategically, because even if you don’t know the grape, the region, or the producer, you know and trust the importer. Finding your new favorite importer can be overwhelming at first—the world of wine is huge and diverse! But you can easily go down a rabbit hole, from importer to importer, until you find your soul mate.
When you’re at your wine shop picking your next wine, instead of choosing by the artwork on the label alone (or the other way you’ve found to be your version of a statistically probable “good” wine), twirl that bottle around and check out the back of that label. That’s where the importer information lives.
Below are some great importers to look for as you start on your journey to a new world of wine. Memorize their name and logo and you’ll make your process of choosing your next favorite wine that much easier.
Jenny & François Selections
Jenny & François even have a line of boxed wine, From The Tank, that is fairly easy to access, and much better than other boxed wines on the market. You can have it all—natural wine can economical and delicious at the same time! Jenny & François focus on French and French-style wines, but have a wonderful and wide variety of wines on the market.
Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant
Kermit Lynch is a huge importer focused on wines from France and Italy. You can find wines imported from Kermit Lynch at a wide variety of price points, but one of my favorites is their assortment of Beaujolais they import each year.
SelectioNaturel
SelectioNaturel has a very basic premise—they offer real wine that is naturally made. Most of it happens to come from Italy. They have funky wines, skin contacts, and other fun, unique wines.
Fifi’s Imports
Fifi offers a unique selection of wines, mostly from France. Their Octobre, which comes out each fall, is a funky red wine that will transform your least funky friends into funky wine drinkers.
Louis/Dressner Selections
Louis/Dressner is a portfolio of over 100 vignerons hailing from France, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Slovenia and Chile. They have strict regulations for the types of wines they import, which always makes choosing an LD wine an easy choice.