Wines for local palates

MATCHMAKER: Jesse Dominick Sgro is co-founder of Sage Cellars Inc., a wine and beer wholesale distributor that only works with family-owned vineyards. / PBN PHOTO/KATE WHITNEY LUCEY
MATCHMAKER: Jesse Dominick Sgro is co-founder of Sage Cellars Inc., a wine and beer wholesale distributor that only works with family-owned vineyards. / PBN PHOTO/KATE WHITNEY LUCEY

With 20 years of combined experience working with food and wine, husband and wife Jesse Dominick Sgro and Anne Sage take a great deal of care in what type of wines they bring into Rhode Island.

Indeed, the limited wine selection available in Rhode Island was one of the leading reasons why the couple in 2012 founded Sage Cellars Inc., a wine and beer wholesale distributor in Warren.

“We realized that if we opened a wine shop we’d be beholden to what the distributers had to offer in Rhode Island,” Sgro told Providence Business News. “We felt sort of handcuffed that we couldn’t bring in any of the wines [we wanted] to sell, because they weren’t available, so we started our own distribution company.”

Sgro, who attended culinary school at Johnson & Wales University, has always been drawn to wine because “there’s always something new to learn.”

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After graduating, Sgro worked in retail wine shops before founding Sage Cellars. Likewise, Sage first started studying wine in 1996 in Boston and continued her studies at Le Cordon Bleu Paris, with a sommelier from the Paris Ritz. A classically trained French chef, Sage owned a catering company for a decade prior to Sage Cellars.

The couple has since leveraged their expert palates as a selling point when pitching their services to restaurants and retailers, but it also helps them choose the right kind of wine to match Rhode Island cuisine, which Sgro called “unique.”

“There’s a very vibrant food scene in Rhode Island that’s constantly changing and evolving and there’s a lot of work to further establish our footprint in the state,” Sgro said. “Some of the larger and vanguard accounts that have been around for a while are beginning to come our way.”

Sage Cellars is unique in that it only works with family-owned vineyards. The mission is both rewarding and a challenge for Sgro, who says it takes clients longer to notice some of the wines his company distributes, absent the name recognition of a Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates, Hewitt Vineyard or other big-name wineries.

“It’s kind of a challenge, but I really relish that. People try these wines, learn about the stories behind them and typically come back again and again,” he said. “That’s what we’re finding in our own sales. We have a lot of repeat business.”

PBN named Sage Cellars one of the fastest-growing and innovative companies of 2015 among businesses with revenue ranging between $175,000 and $5 million. Sgro says growth continues and he expects sales, which he declined to disclose, to double in 2016. The increased sales, he said, will be driven by the growing of Sage Cellars’ customer base, as more restaurants and retailers throughout the state learn about Sage Cellars’ unique model.

“Now in our fifth year, we’ve been able to generate with our customers a reputation for integrity and respect for the product,” Sgro said. “People really trust the choices we make and I see a lot more of the established accounts coming into our portfolio.” n

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