Fred Bouchard

LAURETTE COSSABOON • 38 • Buyer & Sales • Ball Square Fine Wines • Somerville, MA Who could have imagined the magical influence the training program at Disney World would have on the retailing of wine and spirits in Davis Square in Somerville? HOW I GOT MY START I’m from... Read More

JOE GOMES • 49 • Spirits Buyer/Store Manager • Blanchard’s • Allston, MA SELF-STARTER After a varied career (construction, high tech, manufacturing, engineering) I’ve been at this store over 17 years. It was a challenge at first: all I knew about wine and liquor and beer was what you come... Read More

Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger, 54, an ex-Marine captain in French forces in Martinique, is well known as a forthright, opinionated speaker with resonant voice and take-charge personality; though he may rail against what he regards as absurdities in the business, he tempers his assertiveness with a courtly, occasionally confiding, genteel manner, and... Read More

PASCAL BOYE • 46 • Western Hemisphere Sales Director, Nicolas Feuillatte Champagne • Chouilly, France It’s the story about how a ‘new kid’ in Reims, Nicolas Feuillatte, transitioned from selling hot coffee to chilled Champagne, and how a Bordeaux ‘Boye’ is helping the 31-year-old brand towards category supremacy. BORDEAUX to... Read More

ANTONIO PANI • 57 • Wine Buyer & Store Manager • Kappy’s Fresh Pond, Cambridge, MA Denny Morris, a Berklee colleague, buys wine at Kappy’s Fresh Pond; he usually drinks $1O Cal cabs, but says Antonio Pani has sold him up to finer Priorats. Some salespeople keep up their careers... Read More

GEORGE SCHWARTZ • 51 • Northeast Regional Sales Manager • VIAS Wines, New York City George Schwartz, a seasoned wine salesman and veteran of the Boston and New England marketplace, who looks at the wine world with a quizzical grin through Raybans perched on his DeNiro-like aquiline nose, is a... Read More

BURT MILLER • 😯 • CEO, Brookline Liquor Mart & Millesimes Fine Wine Traders • Allston, MA Fellow philanthropist Ray Tye of United says he’s “positive, respected.” Associates call him “one of the last of the nice guys.” Mike Brody of M.S. Walker said he’s “a pioneer and a Godfather... Read More

I‘m having a pleasant tete-à-tete luncheon with Karen Holmes Ward in the popular Kenmore Square “ristro” Le Petit Robert, with some personal attention from chef Luc Le Gillec. We’re talking about Divas Uncorked, the women’s wine education group of which Ward is a founding member. Divas Uncorked is a Boston-based... Read More

PENNY KNAPMAN • 64 • Owner/Buyer • The Epicure, Chatham, MA The Epicure on Main Street in Chatham opened as an S.S.Pierce store in 192O; Penny Knapman is only its fourth proprietor. In a small town with seasonal dips and a big inventory, how’s a gal to run a mom... Read More