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Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Oakwood exec launches second career — in Italian wines
David Winch already has one career: he is part of the fifth generation of his family to operate The Minster Machine Co., which sells metal stamping presses from its Auglaize County headquarters.
Yet the 44-year-old Oakwood resident also has decided the wine business would be “a great business to be in.”
Now, it’s probably no coincidence that Winch reached that conclusion while he was sitting in a trattoria in Northern Italy having long, leisurely lunch and a glass of fine Barbaresco with an Italian friend with whom he had done business.
That friend suggested they form a partnership to import Italian wine into the United States. And from that lunch, Sun Wine Imports was born, with Winch and his wife Julie as co-owners. For Winch, the new venture is a win-win: It will give him a good excuse to get together and do business more often with two men he considers good friends — his business partners Mario Sangalli and Pietro Pellegrini — while also introducing Dayton-area wine enthusiasts to what Winch calls “small, high-quality, estate-grown wines and to the families that grow them.”
Winch said he first traveled to Italy when he was a student at the University of Dayton enrolled in a one-month study-abroad program in Rome. “That’s when I fell in love with the country,” he said. So much so that when he married Julie — whom he met at UD — the couple honeymooned in Italy. In recent years, he has sold some metal stamping presses to Italian companies, necessitating — of course — even more business trips there.
So far, the portfolio of the fledgling wine-importing company consists of a grand total of nine wines — mostly Prosecco and other sparklers, along with a Tuscan cabernet sauvignon and a Chianti — but the portfolio is expected to grow, starting with a Barbaresco (nebbiolo-based red wine grown in one of Italy’s most prestigious wine-producing regions) this fall.
Winch’s Italian partners are in town this week for a handful of events to officially launch Sun Wine Imports’ offerings. They’ll pour several of those wines from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. tomorrow (Thursday, June 25) at the Cork & Vine Wine Market & Lounge on York Commons Blvd. near Miller Lane, and again from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 27 at Arrow Wine & Spirits’ Far Hills Avenue store in Kettering, including the 2007 Alice Prosecco Extra Dry, 2007 Petrognano Bianco, 2003 Petrognano Vigna Santa Chianti Reserva, 2003 Petrognano Monte Vago and 2006 Petrognano Chianti.
For more information, go to www.sunwineimports.com.
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