Emily and Stephan Schindler have invested everything they own in Winemonger, a company that imports, distributes and retails Austrian wines. "When we started, all we knew was that we both loved wine," Schindler says. Everything else, she says, they learned the hard way.

They both met as students at the American Film Institute, but they bonded over the bottles of wine they shared each evening at dinner. Emily, the daughter of a wine-loving Stanford University professor, has been swirling, sniffing and sipping wine as long as she can remember. And Stephan, whose family owns a tiny vineyard in Vienna, loves the wines of his homeland.

When Stephan wanted to introduce his favorite Austrian wines to Emily, however, they were nowhere to be found in Los Angeles. One afternoon in the couple's Hollywood backyard they had a moment of clarity: Emily would stop rewriting other people's mediocre movie scripts and Stephan would extract himself from a job producing "Star Mania," the Austrian version of "American Idol." Instead, they would import Austrian wine and sell it on the Internet.

Purple teeth, red tape!

It took a year to organize the paperwork, which entailed much more than an import license. There were the wholesale license, off-site retail license, label approvals and customs compliance to obtain, and they had to build an Internet site, not to mention learn the logistics of shipping and exporting wine from Austria. Buying trips to Austria were rare treats.

Winemonger's first shipment landed at the port of Oakland in October 2004. Thanks in part to delays at customs and more paperwork snarls, the first Internet sale -- four bottles to a California customer -- wasn't made until June 20, 2005.

"We kept getting little things wrong," Emily says. "And getting wines from California to other states turns out to be as complicated as importing them in the first place."

As they worked through the layers of state and federal bureaucracy, Emily says, "people kept saying, 'You can't do that.' Well, turns out you can." But since they were combining so many different businesses into one entity run by just two people, no one person had the answers they needed, she says.

It's been worth it. "Our vintners have become good friends & the adventure of finding the wines, knowing we've picked great ones, I love that part."

Founded by Eric Danch and Catherine Granger, Danch and Granger Selections is the independent offspring of Blue Danube Wine Company, a pioneering importer of wines from Central and Eastern Europe.

Blue Danube Wine Co. owners and founders Frank Dietrich and Zsuzsa Molnar tirelessly managed their company from 2002 until 2019. Above and beyond taking countless risks and making countless investments, they have championed a part of the wine world with an unmatched focus. They are now enjoying a well-deserved retirement.

In cooperation with Frank and Zsuzsa, we will continue Blue Danube’s mission and honor its legacy, but Danch and Granger is a different company from top to bottom. Combining their complementary skills, Eric is responsible for the company's sales and portfolio while Catherine provides the financial and business structure for the company.

Our focus will be centered on (but not limited to) Hungary and its immediate neighbors: Slovakia, Serbia, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, and Romania. We will dig deeper into fewer relationships while at the same time opening up new appellations to the US market and putting an emphasis on organic farming, native grapes, and low intervention winemaking. Because we’ve been fortunate enough to hear the stories, learn the history, taste the wines, and meet the people that Frank and Zsuzsa introduced us to over the past 8 years, we have an informed perspective on what is happening with the next and future generations. They will be the focus of Danch & Granger Selections.

Jonathan Lazar hails from the fashion industry and after extensive travels to and from Italy he fell in love with the natural wine scene mostly there in the south. Hope he gets his website up soon. His instragam is more active. We like him, his producers are some of the hottest around. You should like him too.

Wine Traditions Ltd. was created in 1996,  the collaborative project of Edward Addiss and Barbara Selig. The philosophy of Wine Traditions is to discover independent winemakers whose passion for their vineyard and mastery of their winemaking craft combine to create a product that is a beautiful expression of the land from which it comes.  They believe their portfolio demonstrates that wonderful wines can be found beyond well known appellations and need not be over priced.  For them, wine is meant to be enjoyed with dinner, everyday and at prices that make it an appropriate component of the meal.

Ed majored in composition at Berklee College of Music and started working part time in wine shops to support his late night composing.  Barbara studied Italian and Art History at Georgetown University. They met in New York soon after graduating and have been together ever since.

Ed continued in the wine business working for several importer/distributors in New York.  Eventually Ed and Barbara had the idea to market New York wines locally; they wanted to promote the wines made where they lived.  They traveled to wineries throughout Long Island, the Hudson Valley and the Finger Lakes, meeting and talking with producers, but it proved too difficult to get enough wineries to participate. Ed instead went to work for the San Francisco Wine Exchange, a pioneer in the marketing of independent wineries during the early days of the California local food and wine movement. 

Ten years later Ed and Barbara were still eager to embark on their own project. Ed found the inspiration for Wine Traditions in an unlikely spot. On a sales call in a package store in the East Village, Ed agreed to buy a collection of “unsellable” old Crus Bourgeois Bordeaux from the owner. The wines were absolutely delicious; they were what Ed had first loved in wine.  He began researching independent growers in Bordeaux which led to an exploration of the whole of Southwest France and the beginnings of Wine Traditions.

Ed takes a studied approach to developing his portfolio, marked by intensive research into geology, geography as well as  the philosophy and approach of  producers.  The process is too laborious to allow them to cover more than a small area at a time.  He and Barbara make multiple visits to an appellation in order to develop an appreciation for its potentialities before they make selections that they feel are representative of  the area’s best qualities. 

Ed and Barbara continue their passionate interest in supporting local food products and encouraging growth in local wine production.  Ed serves on the Board of the Atlantic Seaboard Wine Association which promotes the interests of domestic wineries. They see a working correlation between importing traditional  wines from little known wine regions of France and engendering a vested culture of  local food appreciation here in the US. By importing these wines they are preserving the culture of local wine making in France by enabling it to remain a viable economy, and, in a sense, they are importing that culture, the idea that making wine locally is culturally valuable and economically valid.

Wine Traditions currently works with 60 independently owned wineries.  The wines feature indigenous varietals and are traditionally made, all following sustainable agriculture, many are organic and several follow biodynamic principles as well. 

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Terra Sancta Trading is a family-owned business founded in Jacksonville, Florida, focusing on importing and distributing beer, wine and spirits directly from Eastern Europe and the Middle East. They are dedicated to providing a diverse selection of products from the Eastern Mediterranean, with an emphasis on consistent quality and superior service.

Terra Sancta has quickly risen to become a leader among specialty Eastern European and the Middle Eastern beverage importers and suppliers with aspirations on continually driving quality and expanding their unique product portfolio.

Terra Sancta represents the culture and history of the Middle East and ancient wine making world from Morocco to Lebanon to Armenia.

We have partnered in the southeastern USA to continue to bring access to some of the best wines from their portfolio to the region.

Terraneo Wine Merchants, founded by Sasha Burekovic in 2011 is paving their way into the industry, accumulating a diverse portfolio of wines from all across the planet. They began with 1,200 cases that landed at the warehouse from a winery in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and they made it their objective to introduce new wines to Chicago. They're a rapidly expanding Illinois distributor with the distribution expertise, logistics, and capabilities of a major corporation. They have partnered with us in the southeastern USA as we both continue to spearhead access to the best wines from Eastern Europe. Obviously there is a focus on organic, biodynamic and natural wines with little intervention.

Athena Bochanis founded Palinkerie in 2013 to present the proud legacy and exciting development of Hungarian wine to the US market. She spent time in Budapest during law school, and while she was there she tried some incredible wines.

The more she learned about Hungarian winemaking, the more fascinated she became. She was charmed by the beauty of the vineyards, the different appellations and their stories, and the personal touch that each tiny family-run winery seemed to leave on their wines.

After she returned to New York, she was determined to share these experiences with others.

Palinkerie’s first shipment in 2014 consisted of just 270 cases. Today they carry over 55 different wines, and are proud to represent many of the top wineries from across Hungary. They are committed to partnering with growers who engage in sustainable organic farming practices and low intervention methods in the cellar.

Hungarian wine presents distinctive terroirs to unearth; fresh flavors to enjoy; rare grapes to pronounce (or mispronounce); and a new world of memories to create.

Selections de la Viña is a Spanish portfolio of authentic wines made by authentic people. The wines transmit the passion of their winemakers who are small growers making wines that sacrifice quantity over quality. Farming practices are organic or biodynamic. Additives are limited in the cellar. Many are reclaiming obscure regions and native grape varieties. Most importantly, the growers are making wines that they love, and wines that represent the land from which they come regardless of market trends.