Tips for Choosing the Perfect Wine: A Guide to Wine Importers

Written by Andrea Morris

Illustration by Soraya Javan

Choosing a new bottle of wine can be daunting; the labels are often in different languages, there may be a ton of wine jargon that doesn’t really help or there might be no information at all. At the end of the day, all you really want to know is if the liquid inside is going to make your tastebuds happy and perhaps a bit about the producer and their farming practices.

My two pieces of advice for when you’re looking for a new wine:

1. Chat with an enthusiastic salesperson at your favorite wine store as they’ll know how to interpret your likes and dislikes. That’s in a perfect world. But what do you do when you don’t have access to such personalized help?

2. Turn the bottle around and look at the back label! While the front label can be very useful as it might mention the grape, region, winery or vintage, two different Pinot Noirs from Sonoma Coast can be miles apart depending on the growing and production methods. While generally not as attractive as the front, the back label will tell you who the importer is which can guide you if you’re familiar with that importer’s style or ethos.

Wine importers serve as intermediaries between wineries and the market. Every non-US wine requires an importer, and most domestic wines do too. Trusted importers meticulously select wines they genuinely believe in, ensuring quality and excellence.

Bringing alcohol into the US requires a ton of paperwork, so smaller, quality minded importers tend to only bring in wines that they really believe in. The key is to identify an importer whose taste aligns with yours and explore other wines in their portfolio.

5 Wine Importers to Know

Becky Wasserman & Co.

Style: Old School, Old World

When life calls for some great Chardonnay or Pinot Noir, keep it classic with one of the true OG importers of Burgundy. Starting in the 1970s, Becky Wasserman was a trailblazer in Burgundy and I have never been disappointed in a bottle bearing her name on the back. These wines are sold through a few distributors because the American alcohol industry is endlessly complicated, but look for the circular logo and feel confident that you’re holding a bottle of thoughtfully made, classically styled wine. Burgundy tends to be a pricey region due to the small amount of land, temperamental grapes and dreadfully low yields, so my hack here is to find the entry-level Becky Wasserman bottles - they’ll usually say Bourgogne Blanc or Bourgogne Rouge rather than a single village name - because these producers make great wine at every level.

Rosenthal Wine Merchant

Style: Old School, Old World

In the 1970s, Neal Rosenthal took over his father’s liquor store and by 1980 he was traveling to Europe to discover new producers to bring back to the US. This came at a time right as Americans finally started to regain their interest in enjoying high quality wine after drinking culture was destroyed by Prohibition. In the years since, the Rosenthal oval on the back of a bottle has become associated with small-scale producers specializing in wines that speak to tradition and terroir. Many of the wineries in the portfolio have been with Rosenthal Wine Merchant for decades, which speaks not only to their consistency but also to the fact that the company is run by genuinely nice and caring people. When you see a wine on the shelf that is brought in by Rosenthal, you can feel confident that the juice in the bottle is a classic style for whatever region the wine originates from. Their portfolio tends to lean towards earthy flavors and subtlety, but not full on funk. If you’re taking a bottle to a dinner party and all you know is that the guests tend to enjoy European wines over domestic, these wines will make everyone happy.

Louis-Dressner

Style: Natural & Some Funky Flavors

Louis-Dressner was started by a young couple, Denyse Louis, a native Burgundian, and Joe Dressner, a native New Yorker, who met while studying Journalism at New York University in the mid-1980s. After having spent the summer of 1985 at a house that Denyse and her siblings inherited in a tiny village in Southern Burgundy, they developed the idea of exporting wines to the United States. Following the birth of their first child and a summer relocation to the South of Burgundy, Denyse and Joe acted on their idea and created Louis-Dressner. Although business was initially slow, they eventually discovered the producer Domaine de Roally, a natural-leaning Burgundy producer, in 1987 and decided to find more producers in the same vein. With a clearly defined philosophy and style, they gained supporters and became one of the first natural wine focused importers in the US.

Skurnik Wines & Spirits

Style: Domestic Producers

Skurnik is perhaps better known for German Riesling and Champagne but they also bring in a fantastic range of domestic wines from big Napa Cabs to crunchy “new California” producers. Michael Skurnik started the business in the late 1980s and was soon joined by his brother and sister, and now their children. Skurnik represents a larger selection of wineries than others mentioned in this article, so the vision is not quite as cohesive, but the selection of domestic wines is consistently excellent. Some of their producers specialize in riper, richer flavors whereas others are more focused on light and fresh qualities but rest assured that whichever the style, American wines in this portfolio will be really well made.

Transatlantic Bubbles

Style: Grower Champagne & Sparkling Wines

Sparkling wine is not just for celebrations; high quality bubbles are the best for pairing with pizza, they’re excellent at the beach and perfect to sip while catching up with a friend who you haven’t seen since The Before Times. As you may guess from the name, Transatlantic Bubbles is a Champagne and sparkling wine specialist. It’s a small portfolio with literally zero misses. Their Champagne’s feature a wide range of styles and price points and each one is precise, minerally and full of character. Their non-Champagne sparklers are also stellar. If you’re looking for a sparkler, you really can’t go wrong here.

If you see any of the above mentioned importers on the back label of a bottle, feel confident that what you are holding is going to be a great choice. Think of these importers as a layer of credibility; if you enjoy a producer in their portfolio, there’s a good chance that you’ll enjoy others as well.