This year marks the 25th anniversary of New Jersey-based Vine Street Imports, an impressive feat for a relatively small wine importer focused on off-the-beaten-track regions from Australia, South Africa, England, and beyond. And the company has managed to weather some difficult periods—the global financial crisis and the pandemic, for starters—without veering from its core philosophy.
“One thing I can say about the foundation of Vine Street is that the focus now and then really isn’t all that different,” says Aaron Meeker, Vine Street’s national sales manager. “[The philosophy] was dealing with winemakers that are good people you want to hang out with, have a meal with, kind of that ‘no asshole’ policy.”
Like many wine businesses, Vine Street started, evolved, and thrived thanks to the strength of its personal relationships. From Meeker’s friendship with Vine Street co-founder Ronnie Sanders to serendipitous meetings with winemakers-turned-business-partners, a personal touch has continuously contributed to Vine Street’s success.
Vine Street’s early days offer two such examples. In the late ’90s, Sanders was traveling in Asia through his previous work in textiles when he attended a wine dinner and met a man named Michael Twelftree—the founder of Australia’s Two Hands Wines. Sanders soon became their first U.S. importer, creating a path for Vine Street Imports. After spending nearly a decade building an all-Australian portfolio, the book’s next big move came in 2008 when Sanders was dining in Italy with one of his Aussie producers. Bonding over news of the beloved Didier Dagueneau’s death, Sanders formed a fast friendship with Le Ragnaie’s Riccardo Campinoti, which led to the eventual joint creation of Poggio Anima.
Nearly every major addition to the Vine Street portfolio began with similar chance encounters or personal introductions, allowing the book to naturally evolve to include producers making wines that they felt passionately about selling in the U.S. Even if a winemaker’s region was of little interest in the U.S. market, the Vine Street team’s personal belief in the wines served as a powerful sales tool.
This way of working is how Meeker himself joined the company, having connected with Sanders years before, and as the national sales manager, Meeker has embraced this philosophy to further grow the portfolio. In 2016, Meeker became instrumental in launching the English sparkling wine category in the U.S., albeit unintentionally. After a light-bulb moment tasting a 2008 Bolney Blanc de Blancs—”It was like sparkling Dauvissat”—Meeker got an email from Hugh Johnson’s son, Red Johnson, about his new company called British Bottle Company, which represented several English sparkling wine producers.
“In typical Vine Street/Ronnie/Meeker fashion—we don’t really do anything half-ass—[we thought] let’s really do it,” says Meeker. “Let’s get four producers at once.” The idea was to tell England’s terroir story, which required multiple producers to demonstrate those differences. “We shipped the very first full container of English wine in the history of the world.”
“That same year, I got an email from Mick Craven [the co-owner of Craven Wines in Stellenbosch],” continues Meeker. “We had zero interest in [South Africa], like negative interest, and when Mick sends this email through a couple mutual connections … I was like, ‘We don’t import African wine. Have a nice day.’ Thankfully, he didn’t take no for an answer. We finally got to [tasting their wines] and it was like this ah-ha moment.”
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