Burt Miller

BURT
MILLER • 😯
• CEO, Brookline Liquor Mart & Millesimes Fine Wine
Traders • Allston, MA

BEGINNINGS
My initial inspiration was about 57 years ago I applied for
a job here. My late father-in-law, Irving Ruby, hired me,
and I’ve been here ever since. Irving Ruby was one of the
first to import lots of Scotch whisky. During that time,
some 3O-plus years ago, a gentleman and former partner of
mine, Fred Ek, and I created a company called Classic Wines
Imports. Fred’s palate for wine was as good as anyone’s I
know. We created Classic to cater to the small but badly
neglected vendor and on-premise restaurant. You’d go into
most wine stores and see a good product that was not
well-dated or presented. I thought there was a huge market
for it, of which there was.

CLASSIC
BOOK Of the
producers that we stood behind, the number one and best of
all of them was Marcel Guigal. Guigal, Fred Ek and I – Fred
continuing more so than I – became very good friends and
respected each other. As a matter of fact, his son Phillippe
worked with me for a short period of time. Then there’s
Schramsberg California Champagne; Jack Davies insisted that
his product be treated the same way as Champagne from Reims
from start to finish: cuvee, bottling, riddling, transport.
At that time we had Jim Pedroncelli, Joe Heitz, Hank Wetzel
of Alexander Valley Vineyards, David Stare of Dry Creek
Vineyards. A large number of small boutique wineries were
doing well for themselves and experienced growth, and they
did well with us. We were happy to have them because of
their attention to the excellence of product, and their
attention to us as a wholesaler.

GOOD
TASTES When Fred
and I went to Europe in the early days, we’d start tasting
around eight or nine in the morning and taste several
hundred wines. The similarity of our tasting notes and
selections afterward was unusual. I don’t believe in
brown-bagging and blind tasting. I like to see what I taste
and taste what I see. When I tasted wines it was less for
what I enjoyed personally than what I thought the public
might enjoy. I still enjoy tasting new products; we wouldn’t
be offering them if we didn’t think they were
appropriate.

OUR ADS,
OURSELVES Thirty
years later I sold Classic to the Martignetti chain and came
back to my original store and started to recoup the
business. Our business was to work with the consumer – or
again, the small storefront restaurant – and create a
product line most appropriate for them. Disregarding the
heavily advertised products, as I thought that somebody
would have to be paying for the advertising. If we could
work on the products ourselves, we could eliminate a huge
cost. And it’s been somewhat successful. We weren’t forced
by a wholesaler to buy and resell product unless we believed
in it. If we believed in the product, well fine, it would
work well. Not to say that we didn’t believe in other
products, but just that if there were an approach where we
had to give this to get that, that was not an approach that
I appreciated working with. And while there were then some
2O-plus major wholesalers in the state, now there are
probably closer to six.

STARTING
OVER In the future
I hope to continue somewhat that process we had at Classic
through Millesimes, this small wholesale company we have in
Allston with Chris Minchin and my daughter Lisa Miller Ryan.
We’re planning the very idea of working with the catering
clan, who I don’t think have drawn sufficient attention as
an important segment of the industry, and the small boutique
restaurants. The tasting we held at Newton Marriott
[October] was a small kickoff of what we hope to do.
If you take the universities, if you take the country clubs,
private clubs such as The Harvard Club, University Club,
Algonquin Club – they are useful to the large wholesaler in
a minimal fashion, insomuch as they can’t give them the time
and the appropriate service. I hope to be able to do that.
Any ways we can help the consumer, the on-premise and
off-premise licensees – that’s where I want to be. I don’t
want to be the largest seller of XYZ product through heavy
advertising. I’d rather put the advertising dollar into the
bottle, so the consumer has the betterment of it. You as a
long-standing customer know all of this!

DUMB
LIKE FOXES We’ve
begun a venture with Wines for Dummies. Many of us know that
the books are available, the authors’ wine knowledge is
deep, and the writing is very good. We have created a small
division to work for products selected for the Wines for
Dummies in conjunction with the authors. We’re still working
out the details. Retail stores who’ve asked to be a part of
it are doing very well. You have a source of tasting that
is, in my opinion, second to none. Mary Mulligan is as
highly ranked a winetaster as any in this country, and her
associate [husband Ed McCarthy] is very
knowledgeable. Lisa, Chris, Roger Ormon and my staff have a
pretty good knowledge of the product. And the concept is a
good one. The unusual part is that the wines we’ve selected
have been [twice] well-received before we make a
final cut. We hope that will be successful, as with Clearly
Art glassware and Wine Saver.

CLASSIC
PRINCIPLES Our new
venture is more of a continuation of what we’ve done, but
I’m putting my money where my mouth is. You can’t do it all,
but we’re doing what we can. My previous book might’ve had
3-4OOO SKUs; I want to keep it to something more practical.
Don’t forget, when I sold Classic, we had close to 1OO sales
people; today at Millesimes we have just four: Chris, Lisa,
Aaron Tabor and Jeff Szczesny. The basic principles we
followed at Classic I wish to extend to Millesimes. Chris
has lived in Italy and worked for us at Classic. We’ll see
what happens. We’ll have holes, sure. But we’re looking at
South Africa, South America, Spain, Italy. There are a lot
more great product available there than from France. One big
problem is the Euro; it went up again yesterday. 47% –
that’s a big cut.

SMARTEST
DEAL Putting my
daughter Lisa in association with me in the company. She has
an excellent talent and is totally devoted to the business,
not unlike myself. We started well with Remoissenet and
Guigal in France and boutique California wineries; we were
one of the more successful companies in this part of the
country. We worked well with Tony Spinazzola, who went to
California with me; I was the founding director of the
Spinazzola Foundation. We were happy to do these things, and
it was part of my enjoyment in the business.

FAVORITE
WINES & DINES
Any wine that’s available. It’s not what I like, I’m tasting
for the consumer, not for myself. My cellar’s no longer what
it used to be: I still have many wines from Joe Heitz,
Marcel Guigal and Jack Davies. But now I mainly drink off
the lists of various restaurants. I’ve always enjoyed the
cooking of Michael Schlow and Lydia Shire, but there are
many good chefs around now.

CURRENT
INSPIRATION I take
ideas wherever they might occur; if I think I like the
concept, I take it from there. No specific situation,
guidelines or entities, as such. If I see some nice
advertising, I key into that. You pick it up as you go
along. They’re all important: you take what you like out of
context. It doesn’t always work, but you try.

WHOLESALERS’
GUIDELINES Honesty,
integrity – and fair marking. I’d try to buy at a little bit
better price so I can give it to the consumer. We had our
years with spirits of being a so-called ‘cut-rate store’ but
that didn’t relate to wines. I have lots of wines we buy at
closeout or other situations available, but it’s not a
principal part of our business. You have to be competitive,
of course, but we did not pursue those to any great
degree.

OLD
GUARD There are a
few of us old guard left, World War II veterans: Ray Tye,
Ray Kaplan, Marty Siegal, Donald Corey, Chris Gasbarro,
Bobby Selby. These are not our formidable opponents, but
really friends and associates.

ON-LINE
SALES We’re working
on it. I’m a one-finger typist and not computer-literate,
but we’ve got someone working full-time on the web site. We
were one of the few who had a decent web site and we’re
getting back to that level. Roger Ormon’s doing a great job
with that newsletter.

HOBBIES
It’s basically golf and bridge today. I still recall
numbers, prices of what I’d paid for wines over the years.
When I play bridge, I count cards and spots.