Welcome to the Dan Fredman PR website!
I’ve spent the last 25+ years in and around the retail wine business. I’m an inveterate (and unregenerate) winegeek, initially supporting my wine habit by working part-time for several Los Angeles area wine retailers. This eventually led to chronic full-time employment with retailers/importers such as Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant in Berkeley and The Grateful Palate in Oxnard (multi-hemispherical doesn’t always equate to bi-polar)!
Ultimately rescued from the Sargasso Sea that my retail career had drifted into, I am now firmly ensconced in the cosmos of wine public relations and marketing. My experience in the wine industry has served to increase the scope of my knowledge of, curiosity about, and evangelical zeal for wine. My client roster is diverse enough to amuse even someone with A.D.D. and includes wines grown on six continents and encompasses old world and new world winemaking styles.
Despite
my mother’s admonition to “Never work for friends”,
my clients produce wine that I like to drink and they’re the sorts
of folks with whom I like to spend time around the dinner table. I offer
“PR & Marketing to the thirsty…”
Whether they’re thirsty for wine, thirsty for knowledge, or simply
thirsty for something a little different in their vinous life, I use my
expertise to come up with the means to get their messages heard not only
by the media but by my clients’ supply chains and ultimately, the
thirsty consumer…
View the Dan Fredman PR blog
Talley Vineyards
A family farming operation with deep roots (so to speak) in California's Arroyo Grande AVA, they've recently expanded their focus from estate grown Pinot Noir and Chardonnay to include wine made from Bordeaux and Rhone varieties grown in the nether regions of San Luis Obispo County. These are bottled under the Bishop's Peak label. All wines reflect the Talley family's commitment to sustainable growing methods and artisanal, high quality winemaking. www.talleyvineyards.com
Stoller Vineyards
The Stoller Vineyard has provided Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes to some of Oregon's finest producers (Chehalem, DDO, Scott Paul, Argyle) for the past decade. Their recently completed winery is the first winery in the USA to achieve the Gold level of LEED-Certification by the US Green Building Council. This solar powered, ecologically sensitive winemaking facility has been designed to produce fine wines for generations to come. www.stollervineyards.com
Vin Divino
Vin Divino initially found their niche in the marketplace with the wines of Austria and Italy. Their ability to teach people how to pronounce (and sell) wine made from grape varieties such as Grüner Veltliner and Aglianico has enabled their diverse portfolio to grow to include 140+ different producers with wine from Chile, the Languedoc, and Argentina. www.vindivino.com
Vine Connections
Is there a more eclectic portfolio in the world of artisanal wine importers? Stellar collections of wine from Argentina and saké from Japan highlight the range of alcoholic beverages offered by this Sausalito-based importer. There's never a dull moment with Ed Lehrman and Nick Ramkowsky. Wine from New Zealand, Baja California and Sonoma County's Davis Family Vineyards (www.davisfamilyvineyards.com) round out their polyglot selection. www.vineconnections.com
Baker Lane/Singer Olio
Stephen Singer is your basic renaissance man, the sort of guy who lives his life observing and discerning his surroundings, focused creatively on the future while rooted firmly in the past. The olive oil imported from Tuscany by www.singerolio.com is traditional in style, produced from olive varieties that rise to their greatest flavor and aromatic heights in Tuscany. The Baker Lane Pinot Noir and Syrah he produces combine the best of both the old and new worlds- bold fruit is balanced by an elegant tannin structure, easily identifiable as being from Sonoma. Stephen Singer lives for the table; more than just the food and wine it may hold, he believes in the power of the table to gather people around it and the ideas that such intersections of food, wine, and people inspire. www.singerolio.com
Spencer Roloson
Mix a visionary winegrower (Sam Spencer) with a marketing dynamo (Wendy Roloson) and the result is an intriguing winery with striking labels that may be the only Napa Valley-based producer not to hang their shingle on Cabernet or Chardonnay. Sam channels his reverence for Iberian varietals into the couple’s Tempranillo and Grenache Blanc releases, in the process seducing wine drinkers, wine makers, and other Iberian-inclined romantics with the potential of these varieties in the USA. Meanwhile, fans of Rhone varieties are falling for the Spencer Roloson Madder Lake and La Herradura Vineyard Syrah bottlings.
WineBlueBook
As the brains behind WineBlueBook (formerly known as QPRwines), Neil Monnens combines his passion for wine with his penchant for spreadsheets. His WineBlueBook bridges the gap between the curious consumer and the obsessive connoisseur by taking the mystery out of the game of critic scores vs. retail prices. He doesn’t rate the wines but simply establishes a quality/price ratio number to make it easier for the consumer to make their buying decisions. www.winebluebook.com
Barrel Malibu
Finally, a great place to get buzzed with the Malibu locals! Sip wine by the ounce, glass, flight, carafe or bottles -- more than 50 wines are in the Enomatics (with lots more on the list), accompanied by small plates of food to compliment the wines. www.barrelmalibu.com
Torbreck Vintners
David Powell may well be the Barossa Valley's most iconoclastic wine personality, but in reality he may also be the continent's most traditional vigneron in terms of his approach to viticulture and enology. Sourcing fruit primarily from ancient dry farmed and head pruned bushvine vineyards, he crafts wine that reflects its Barossa Valley character that are as monumental as any of the world's greatest. www.torbreck.com
Veritas Imports
John Winthrop founded Veritas on the premise that importing great wine into the USA to sell to restaurants offered a good reason to dine in those restaurants on a regular basis. With the able assistance of national sales manager David Organisak, Veritas Imports has developed into a major importer and distributor of wines from France (JC Boisset among them). Mssr. Winthrop's passion for the classics (Burgundy and Bordeaux) continues unabated, but the Veritas roster includes wines from Uruguay and parts of France that even John and David hadn't heard of before they began importing them. www.veritaswine.com
Sky Winery
Lore Olds and daughter Maya make Zinfandel in a manner seemingly more appropriate in the Barossa Valley than in the Napa Valley. . .they grow head pruned bush vines toward the top of Mt Veeder and make their wine in a winery that may or may not have electricity by now. Not "gobby", not "hedonistic", not made in a "fruitbomb" motif, Sky Zinfandel is made as if it were still 1966 and ;late harvest was still thought of as an accidental occurrence and not a requisite winemaking technique. Rustic, honest and the wines sport a different label in each vintage …what more could you want in a Zinfandel? www.skyvineyards.com