By Peg Todloski, Weaver Street Market Specialty Merchandiser
Weaver Street Market continuously cultivates strong relationships directly with producers. We’ve recently reached out to Argentinian wineries to import high-quality, great-value wines that we can consistently stock. Through our importing partners we are able to source (almost) directly from wineries with good growing and business practices and excellent wines.
Lagarde Winery is a family-run vineyard and winery in Argentina. We carried Lagarde wines many years ago until the U.S. importer pulled out of the North Carolina market. I remembered carrying the Altas Cumbres wines (a first-tier line from Lagarde Winery) and contacted the winery directly to see if we could renew our business relationship and get the wines back in North Carolina for our customers.
We welcomed Sebastian Barboza from Lagarde Winery on Wednesday, May 27 for a visit with our staff and customers. Sebastian often makes once-a-year visits to customers around the United States. He led two staff trainings that included detailed information about the history of the winery, wine making, and farming practices, as well as a staff tasting of the wines we sell now in addition to wines we’ll be stocking in the fall.
Later that day at our Hillsborough store, Sebastian, Hillsborough Store Manager Alice Lamson, and I held an in-store tasting demo with an array of snacks to complement the wines: Greek olive mix with chilies, Giacomo’s Milano salami, Grana Padano cheese, and Marcona almonds. Sebastian was able to share the winery story and the wines with many of our customers. It was great fun, and people were pleasantly surprised to find a special tasting on a Wednesday evening.
We are proud to be selling the Lagarde wines, which include Lagarde Malbec and several wines from the Altas Cumbres line. If you haven’t tried these wines yet, don’t wait any longer, they are incredibly well-made wines of great value!