About The Simple Wine
A father-son team importing real wine from small family estates across Europe. No additives. Just wine.
Wine Is in Our Blood
Before The Simple Wine existed, this was just my dad trying to find wine he actually wanted to drink.
He was born in Georgia, where people have been making wine for over 8,000 years. Before the Greeks. Before the Romans. Wine there isn't something you overthink. It's something you drink with food, with family, as part of normal life.
When he moved to the United States in 1996, the wines he grew up with didn't exist here. What did exist was either mass produced or wildly overpriced.
He started asking around. Importers. Distributors. Shops. They all said the same thing. "There's no demand." "People want big fruit bombs." "You can't sell wine nobody's heard of."
He didn't believe them.
He started bringing bottles in himself. At first just for friends. Then friends of friends. Over time, that turned into The Simple Wine.
What We Learned Visiting 40+ Family Wineries
In 2016, my father and I took our first sourcing trip together. All over Italy. Sitting in cellars. Eating long lunches. Tasting with the people who actually made the wine.
The first time I walked into a real family cellar, I expected to talk about wine. Instead, the winemaker, third generation and maybe 70 years old, spent the first hour showing me the land. The soil his grandfather planted. The creek that floods every spring. The slope that catches morning sun and holds heat until October.
He didn't mention a single grape until we sat down for lunch.
I've now visited over 40 family estates across Puglia, Tuscany, Piedmont, and beyond. The best producers all have the same thing in common. They don't start with winemaking. They start with farming. With patience. With what their parents taught them, and what they're trying not to ruin for their kids.
These aren't people trying to scale or chase trends. Many make 10,000 bottles a year, or less. They sell locally, to a few restaurants, and to importers like us who actually show up, taste, and sit at their table.
We turn down far more wineries than we work with. Not because the others are bad, but because "good" isn't the standard.
Would I drink this myself, and be proud to share it? That's the only filter that matters.
Real Wine. No Additives.
Every wine we import is produced organically. No added sugars. No preservatives. No chemicals. No added sulfites. These differences are significant because they allow you to enjoy wine without paying for it the next morning.
My dad always says the same thing. "Good wine should flow with the food. It shouldn't be a speed bump. It should be harmonious."
That's still the filter.
If it doesn't drink naturally, we pass. If it's made to impress instead of pair, we pass. If it exists because marketing made it popular, we pass.
The wines that make it through are the ones where you can taste the obsession. Where you open a bottle on a Tuesday and find yourself thinking about it on Friday.
