The food’s swell, but what makes Thanksgiving perhaps my favorite holiday is fellowship. So while I wrote about local stores in this week’s column, it’s the people behind them who make these places special. On this day, here’s who I’m thankful for on that front:  

I love the exuberance that Chuck Kanski (Solo Vino), Ray Zemke (Woodbury Cellars) and Dave Kuennen (BrightWines) share with their customers. I love the passion and thoroughness that they, along with Mark Mackondy (Buon Giorno), David Anderson (France44), Sam Haislet (Sam’s) and Mitch Zavada (South Lyndale), bring to seeking out the very best product. I appreciate the way that Phil Colich (Hennepin Lake), Brad Weiss (WineStreet Spirits) and Nic Nadeau (1st Grand) exact the lowest price that they can get from wholesalers — and pass it along to the consumer.  

I relish the fact that Corey Burstad (Tournament), Bill Abrahamson (Top Ten), Andy Kass (Sutler’s) and two Long Lake dudes – Pat Kessler (Lakeside) and Mike Yungner (Liquor Barn) — have made the outer suburbs great places to shop for wine. I admire the expertise that Darren Minehan (Sorella) and Rodney Brown (the Wine Shop) have brought to stocking wonderful newer stores. And I really like what I’m hearing about munis in Mound and Apple Valley, and look forward to checking them out.

I love the grace and savvy that Kristen Kowalski (the Wine Market), Chris Huff (the Little Wine Shoppe) and KaTrina Wentzel (the Wine Thief) have brought to a predominantly male vocation.

And I recommend that consumers seek out any of the above folks if they want to learn and appreciate more about wine.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 27th, 2008 at 7:22 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.