Any experience with Wine Brokers?

A friend gave my name to someone working for Montesquieu, a wine broker. I spoke for a while with a very pleasant young woman, who tried to sell me a couple cases of wine. She said they specialize in very limited production wines, and usually have exclusive rights to market/distribute them. For example, she described a Napa red blend (primarily Cabernet Franc for $45/bottle, shipping included) from a winery by the name of Divari. I've never heard of it, and I cannot find any information about this winery. I tried searching for information about a handful of other wines offered by Montesquieu, but was unsuccessful in learning anything about them. I can tell you their offerings tend to be rather expensive.

I'll admit to having a great deal of skepticism about all of this, but that is probably my general nature. Do any forum members know anything about Montesquieu? How about any dealings with wine brokers, in general?

-- Clark

A friend gave my name to someone working for Montesquieu, a wine broker. I spoke for a while with a very pleasant young woman, who tried to sell me a couple cases of wine. She said they specialize in very limited production wines, and usually have exclusive rights to market/distribute them. For example, she described a Napa red blend (primarily Cabernet Franc for $45/bottle, shipping included) from a winery by the name of Divari. I've never heard of it, and I cannot find any information about this winery. I tried searching for information about a handful of other wines offered by Montesquieu, but was unsuccessful in learning anything about them. I can tell you their offerings tend to be rather expensive.

I'll admit to having a great deal of skepticism about all of this, but that is probably my general nature. Do any forum members know anything about Montesquieu? How about any dealings with wine brokers, in general?

-- Clark

Generally, wine brokers = run away.

The particular company you refer to has been outed numerous times on numerous Web sites.

Run away.

Clark, check out this link --

http://www.bottlecount.com/harvey/comme ... ewsid=1164

There's plenty of controversy and very hard to judge how good the outfit really is. I would pass -- there are lots of excellent wine retailers with strong endorsements from many of us here.

Regards, Bob

Thanks, Thomas and Bob. I interpreted the warning bells loud and clear, and told them I would try to find out some information about them and their wines before discussing anything further. The woman told me she would call back in a week. It will be interesting to see if they decide to pursue me further.

-- Clark