Meet Stephanie Honig of Honig Winery on W&W Radio

THE HONIG THAT COULD: STEPHANIE HONIG’S WINE IMPORTING ADVENTURE Stephanie Honig of Honig Vineyard & Winery has embarked on a wine importing adventure from a remote region in her home country of Argentina. Ignoring the famous wine region of Mendoza where most Argentinean wine exports originate, Stephanie has set her sights on a white grape that grows in a province tucked up in the mountainous northeast corner of the country. The Torrontes grape from Salta has long been enjoyed by Argentineans, but is little known outside of the country. As Americans discover Torrontes, a new wine trend may well be in the making – spurred on by a young woman who loves wine and whose family has been growing grapes and making wine in Napa Valley for over 40 years. CREATING A WINE IMPORTING BUSINESS ON A SHOESTRING In 2005, with the idea of importing a white wine from Salta and $3,000 from her savings account, Stephanie flew to Buenos Aires, took a small plane to Salta, and then drove four hours to Cayfayate. A beautiful town in a valley surrounded by mountain ranges, Cayfayate’s vineyards are planted on one of the world’s highest vineyard elevations at 6,000 feet. Virtually unknown outside of Argentina, the area is recognized for its high quality premium grapes, particularly the white Torrontes grape, and for its heritage of old vines, many over 100 years. One of the few areas in the world unaffected by the phylloxera devastation, the vines are planted on their original roots and are ungrafted. The wine growers in this region, like the Honig family, farm sustainably and their businesses are predominantly family-owned. While in Argentina – the fifth largest wine producer in the world – Stephanie met with several wine growers from Salta and took wine samples back to New York to taste with top Sommeliers. The Sommeliers loved the Torrontes, choosing the wine made from grapes grown by the Domingo Brothers. In January 2006, Stephanie returned to Argentina and met with the Domingo’s family to discuss making a wine together and importing her own brand. She designed the style of the wine, naming it SAGTA (“the beautiful one”) in the dialect of an extinct Indian tribe that inhabited the province long before it was renamed “Salta”. Today, Argentines refer to the province as Salta La Linda (“the pretty Salta”). Learning that the only way to import wine to the United States was by container -- 876 cases or 10,512 bottles – Stephanie went to work pre-selling most of the first container to several well-know restaurants in New York and Florida, including: The Modern in the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), The Mercer Kitchen in Soho, Veritas Restaurant and the Mandarin Hotel in New York City, and The Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida. While doing this, she contracted with Mark Lauber of Lauber Imports to import and distribute her wine in America. Today, Lauber Imports sells SAGTA in NY, NJ, PA and FL. Stephanie’s Start Up Budget for SAGTA: $3,165.00 $ 1,500.00 -- Travel to Salta, Argentina $ 45.00 -- Register website $ 325.00 -- Trademark wine name $ 800.00 -- Design label $ 295.00 -- Corporate setup fee $ 200.00 -- Rights to use photographs on label + a few bottles of wine During Stephanie’s wine importing start up, she fell in love with Michael Honig of the Honig wine family, married him and had a baby daughter (another daughter is due in January 2009). The newlywed wine couple agreed Stephanie should continue importing her wine from Argentina, that making wine in two hemispheres – Northern and Southern – would be an adventure which would contribute to the Honig family winemaking legacy and its focus on sustainable farming. ABOUT STEPHANIE HONIG The newest member of the Honig family winemaking team, Stephanie Honig has had “a raging passion” for wine as long as she can remember. Before marrying Michael Honig, President of Honig Vineyard & Winery, she worked in New York for Cliquot Inc, the French champagne house, and for Napa Valley-based Rudd Winery. She holds a Wine & Spirit Education Trust Higher Certificate and Diploma and has taught wine classes at the French Culinary Institute in New York and at Florida International University in Miami. Today, she uses her wine knowledge to promote Honig wine, traveling the country with Michael and their young daughter Sophia; to write the Honig winery blog; and to teach wine classes at Copia, the American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts based in Napa, CA. Stephanie and Michael visit Argentina twice a year to oversee her wine importing business and to visit her family in Buenos Aires.