Click here for Part I & Part II

Artisanal, sustainable wines that embody passion from hand to bottle to glass

Carlee Pipitone is the founder and managing partner of Tenth Harvest. Based in Baltimore, Tenth Harvest is an importer and distributor that represents food and beverage producers from around the world. The company takes a sustainable, artisan-focused approach to its business, emphasizing personal relationships and high-quality products that embody the character of the land in which they were grown. Carlee founded Tenth Harvest after graduating from Dickinson College in 2013. In addition to English, she is fluent in Italian and Spanish.

EDWIN WARFIELD: Where does Tenth Harvest fit in in the wine and alcohol market, and how do you see your role among your competitors and partner businesses?

CARLEE PIPITONE: We are a behind-the-scenes player, so a lot of people don’t even know that we exist and don’t even know exactly what we do. I think that if people in the restaurant business and retail business supported small local distributors more and partner together… I feel that as a distributor in Maryland my competition is not other small distributors. I think we are all fighting the same fight—fight’s a strong word—but against big distributors and big companies. So, I think that if small businesses supported small businesses more and we share each other’s interests and challenges, I think that would be a strong partnership.

And there is a partnership there. We are a member of the Maryland State Licensed Beverage Association, and that’s a group of independently owned retailers and restaurants and small distributors who work together, and that’s a great organization. The business community, I think, could help by being aware of other small businesses that are out there: small distributors who represent small business wineries. I represent small businesses and I sell to small businesses.

We really are a part of the farm-to-table movement, which gets really played out, kind of cliché, and that’s our tagline: it’s “farm to glass” or “land to hand, bottle to glass”; but it’s all the same thing for people who care about where their food comes from and supporting their local community, we’re doing the same thing. We are working with people who farm sustainably.

Wine is an agricultural product. If you care about how your food is made, you should care about how your wine is made. It’s a little bit of education in the same way, and understanding that that comes with a little bit of a premium. You pay a little bit more for organic food, but you believe that you’re getting a better quality and healthier product, and it’s the same with wine as well. Whether it’s organic or sustainable or vegan, when it’s made by a small producer by hand, it might cost a little bit more, but you are getting a better product and a better value and supporting a small business.

Q. Can you tell us about the concept of terroir? Why is place so important when it comes to wine?

The concept of terroir and of place, that a wine speaks to a specific place, it’s the wine’s heritage. There are wineries that we represent—for example: Brittan Vineyards in Oregon, they’re in McMinnville AVA in Willamette Valley, and Robert Brittan has about 28 acres planted of his 120-acre estate. There are blocks in his vineyard that are a few yards apart, and the wines from each of those blocks taste dramatically different because underneath the soil in one area are glacial salt deposits that the vines have to sift through to get to water and to fight to produce fruit. That is different from three yards away where there is not the same soil composition. Those wines taste different because of a difference of a few feet.

Q. What are your other producers like? What areas are you focusing on?

A. We started focusing on the Pacific Northwest, which is Washington state and Oregon. There are great values there. They’re not as popular as California, they’re not as widely known, and often that means that there is a better value. The prices maybe more competitive for a number of reasons: popularity and trends, also real estate. So, we focused on more under the radar, undiscovered regions, and in the US that was Oregon and Washington.

Italy is my background, so I had tons on contacts from living there. And, in Italy we work with up-and-coming, undiscovered regions as well, like Alto Adige up in the Dolomites in the mountains and Friuli on the border with Slovenia. I love those fringe areas where it’s kind of a blending of cultures. In Italy, what I love is the indigenous grapes. Italy has over 6000 different grape varietals. More than 2000 of them are indigenous, meaning they are native to Italy. They only grow there. That’s more than France and Spain combined. It’s the indigenous wine culture of Italy that’s so fascinating to me. We’re working with wines that people can’t pronounce and have never heard of, and that’s what I love.

Connect with Carlee on LinkedIn

ABOUT OFFIT KURMAN

Offit Kurman is one of the fastest-growing, full-service law firms in the Mid-Atlantic region. With over 120 attorneys offering a comprehensive range of services in virtually every legal category, the firm is well positioned to meet the needs of dynamic businesses and the people who own and operate them. Our eight offices serve individual and corporate clients in the Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and Northern Virginia markets, as well as the Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City metropolitan areas. At Offit Kurman, we are our clients’ most trusted legal advisors, professionals who help maximize and protect business value and personal wealth. In every interaction, we consistently maintain our clients’ confidence by remaining focused on furthering their objectives and achieving their goals in an efficient manner. Trust, knowledge, confidence—in a partner, that’s perfect.

You can connect with Offit Kurman via our Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn pages. You can also sign up to receive Law Matters, Offit Kurman’s monthly newsletter covering a diverse selection of legal and corporate thought leadership content.

MARYLAND | PENNSYLVANIA | VIRGINIA | NEW JERSEY | NEW YORK | DELAWARE | WASHINGTON, DC

Edwin Warfield, CEO of citybizlist, conducts the CEO Interviews.

If you're interested in reaching CEOs, please contact edwin.warfield@citybuzz.co

Connect on LinkedIn