IWM for the Serious
Wine Collector
Italian Wine Merchants
caters to the wine collector through our portfolio management
services and strict wine selection guidelines. Wine consultants
are on-hand to assist collectors in evaluating their cellars
for depth, breadth and drink-ability, as well as resell potential.
We help our clients manage their purchases so that the wines
in their cellars are best-suited for their taste preferences
and goals.
Wines at IWM:
We stand behind the wines we offer as well as those we don’t. Italy
produces more wine than any country in the world. Like the great French wine
regions of Burgundy and Bordeaux, 95% of Italian wine is of mediocre quality.
Our demanding selection process eliminates all but the top 5%. We only carry
the best quality wines at any given price point. If we have only one Gavi
di Gavi, it is the best one we have found on the market, considering its
price and overall quality.
This site lists only a
fraction of our entire portfolio. Our Portfolio Managers will
discuss our complete cellar listings with you by phone or in
person. Call 212.473.2323 to set-up your account and start
benefiting from our expertise.
Collect Italian
Wines:
Considering the dismissal of Italian wines as recently
as a few years ago, Italy’s wine renaissance has clearly been a resounding success (behind
Australia, Italy leads in US wine imports). We are proud to bring our clients
the best of “The Boot.” Reasons to collect Italian
wines are:
Aging Ability
Grape Varieties Indigenous to Italy
(often not produced elsewhere)
Steady Auction Prices and Demand
Stellar Recent Vintages
Up-and-Coming Producers
Quality Italian wines
can no longer be ignored. In the past decade, the
wine world witnessed legendary vintages in Italy, especially
in Piedmont
and Tuscany. Robert Parker has no hesitations, calling
the 1997 Piedmont vintage so good that it's "freakish" and
stating emphatically that 1997 is "the greatest
Tuscan vintage I have ever tasted."
To better understand Italian
wines as an investment, please refer to a recent SmartMoney
article that features our Italian wines and services.
Selection Process
Sergio Esposito and the IWM staff travel to Italy more
than any other wine team in the US. Sergio spends this time looking
for producers who are passionate about producing high quality
wines. At Italian Wine Merchants you will find a unique selection
of rare, vintage, cult, and fantasy wines produced in both old
and new world styles.
Temperature Control:
The one non-subjective fact of the wine world is that temperature controlled
wines always have better preserved flavors and textures.
At IWM we monitor all of our wines in
our specially designed, climate controlled storage
facility. This is why only one bottle of each wine is displayed
in
our showroom. Merchants not committed to this practice
jeopardize the integrity of your investment. Light, heat and
movement
are destructive, so don’t buy from a store
that exposes your wines to these conditions. Simply
said, a wine from
our cellar will always show better than the same
bottle purchased from a store which stocks their
wines on the showroom floor.
Wine Portfolio Managers & Buying
Objectives:
In Europe, the trusted source for fine wines is the traditional specialty
merchant. At IWM, we continue this tradition through our Portfolio Management
services.
Our Portfolio Managers are well-versed
in Italian wines and the process of collecting fine wines.
They will share with you their extensive knowledge in the
following areas:
Promising Wine Futures
World-Class Producers in International and Traditional Styles
Cult Wines
"Undiscovered" Producers
Vintage Characteristics
Regions and the Official Classification System
Assuring Quality for All Purchases
Italy boasts an extensive
list of wines with various characteristics, from thousands
of producers, in a vast range of price points. Our Portfolio
Managers will assess your purchasing objectives (listed below)
and determine which wines best suit your needs. Once a relationship
is formed our Portfolio Managers will recommend a buying
strategy for you.
Cellar Selections
Rare Wines
Futures & Resell
Special Event Wines
Everyday Wines
Price Point
Wine Seminars
and Private Tastings:
With the close of the 20th Century, the wine world witnessed substantial
growth in wine sales and tasting events. Every corner wine store now offers
casual wine tastings. At Italian Wine Merchants, we take a different approach
by offering seminars in our Studio del Gusto that cater to the serious collector.
Studio del Gusto is
designed as a learning lab for both public seminars and
private tastings (offered exclusively for our clientele). These
events
include some of the industry's leading personalities
and winemakers, from Daniel Thomases of Robert Parker's The
Wine Advocate to
Italy’s premier winemakers. Click
here to see a list of events.
Private tastings in the
Studio are available only for IWM clientele and their friends
for both private and corporate events.
IWM Weekly e-Letter:
Each week IWM informs clients and enthusiasts about new wine arrivals, up-coming
events, and new educational pages added to the website.
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TO WEEKLY e-LETTER
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Praise and Reviews:
Zagat - 28 of 30 for Quality
“If you need Italian wines, especially hard-to-find cult favorites, ‘this
is where to go’ declare ‘serious buyers’ weighing in on this
Union Square-area shop, which is co-owned by chef Mario Batali and stocks over
1,000 wines exclusively from The Boot, ranging from $10-$1,000; with its handsome
looks, smart demonstration kitchen and frequent tastings and classes, it may
sometimes feel ‘more like a club than a store,’ but the ‘professional,
knowledgeable’ staff makes shoppers feel welcome.” - Zagat Marketplace
Click here to see
reviews from The New York Times, Wine & Spirits Magazine, Wine
Spectator and many other sources.
Sergio's Approach:
At Italian Wine Merchants, Sergio Esposito is most proud of
the wines he does not carry. Anyone can select good wines
but if you sell good, great,
and bad wines together, how well are you servicing your client?
If they don’t know the particular wine they are buying, how can you assure
them it’s not from your bad wine stock? At IWM we do not catalogue
wines just because they are available and popular. Sergio chooses wines
because they are great buys and are of superior quality. Yes, other stores
carry Gaja, too. They also carry that horrible, watery Pinot Grigio (which
they purchased at a special discount); you might end up with it if you’re
not careful.
Diversity With
Quality:
Given the diversity of Italian wine and our strict policy to only carry wines
of the highest caliber, our mixed cases have a better chance of pleasing
you than do cases from other stores. This was most evident in a tasting conducted
with SmartMoney editor, James Stewart (Pulitzer Prize winner) and several
other well-known wine writers. Here is what James had to say:
"As is our custom, we first tasted all 12 wines "blind," trying
not only to identify our favorites but also to place
them as either Tuscan or Piedmontese, and as expensive or moderate...What
we can say emphatically is that our panel has never
tasted 12
different wines that we rated so consistently outstanding."
Get Started with
Italian Wine Merchants:
If you are a serious collector and allocating cellar space to Italian wines,
we invite you to come in and meet our Portfolio Managers.
Please feel free to
call Perry Porricelli at 212.473.2323 for a free wine consultation.
Perry and his team will explain which Italian wines represent
the best investment potential for your cellar and help you
find the right wine styles for you and your guests.
