Our ace Midwestern Regional Sales Manager, Jen Jackson is taking Ricardo on a grand tour of Ohio this week so Ricardo asked me to put together a post about some of the awesome developments at Row Eleven this summer. (Quick update: rumor has it that Jen and Ricardo are driving around Ohio in a convertible of some type!)

Superstar Selling Machine Craig Boggs (National Sales Manager) put together two incredible national account deals that are launching currently. One is with Four Seasons and one with Kona Grill. In addition, our phenomenal Southeastern Regional Sales Manager, Sharon Marsowicz inked a deal with Palm Restaurant on a national basis. These wonderful new national accounts were the impetus for shifts in and expansion of our distribution network across the nation. For the record, some or all of Row Eleven’s delicious boutique wines are now distributed in the following states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming. That looks like 27 states to me!

With these programs we moved to the prestigious Southern Wine & Spirits of California - American Wines Division and Republic National Distributing Company of Texas. Transitioning to these distributors required a shift from two excellent brokerages in California and the fine Ambiente Wine Distributors in Texas. We are grateful to Burke Wine Brokerage, Garber & Company and Ambiente for all of their great work in building the Row Eleven brands over the past years. Many thanks to Shannon, Curt, Kate, Elizabeth, Lily and Wes at Burke Wine Brokerage in San Francisco, Sandy, Ben, Bill, Dayna, Gaspar, Mark and Marni at Garber & Company in Southern California and Jordan, Stephan and all of the team at Ambiente.

The changes in California had us revisit the set-up of our network of warehouses and truckers who have been storing, moving and delivering our wines throughout the Golden State. Since our wine movement will now be to our nationwide network of distributors and will not include deliveries to individual restaurant and retail locations in California, we will be transitioning away from Zephyr Express and Pacific Wine Distributors to the warehouse of Ricardo’s longtime friend Bill Harper, Valley Wine Warehouse. This transition has already begun and we expect to be shipping out of Valley Wine Warehouse within a week. Many thanks to Dennis, Mike, Scott, Susan and their Team De’Ahna, Jesse, Joe, Linda, Martine, Monica, Rafael, Sue and all the other folks at Zephyr Express. It has been quite a journey and we appreciate all you have done for Row Eleven. Thank you also to Brian, Gino and Team at Pacific Wine Distributors for moving our wines throughout the City of Angels and environs. Special thanks to Tony and Team at Pacific Coast Transport who made it easy to move wine between Northern and Southern California at practically a moment’s notice.

Shout out to Board member Jeff (throw “What Color Is Your Parachute” out the window ‘cause I landed my dream job) T. in hopes that he will be excited about the developments in the Lone Star state. I understand that Ricardo has asked him to spread the word about Row Eleven in restaurants and retail stores around College Station (all Hail the Fighting Aggies)! Come to think of it, pretty much everyone who works at Row Eleven seems to be working at their dream job! That is pretty cool to say about a company!

We in San Rafael probably won’t be seeing much of Ricardo in the next few weeks as he travels around the country (next stop Santa Fe and the Chile Fiesta with The Girl With The Golden Pallet, Southwestern Regional Sales Manager Lisa Rein). Crush and bottling will follow and then we should be fully into the Holiday Season. We hope you will think of Row Eleven, Stratton Lummis and Civello as you plan for your Holiday celebrations, meals and gifts. We have some fabulous wines available right now including the 2007 Civello White Wine as well as the 2005 Stratton Lummis Cabernet Sauvignon which Ricardo considers his best wine yet!