As wine has become more and more popular in the United States thanks to the new generation of wine-savvy Americans and the many new wineries and wines — domestic and foreign — that are finding their way to more and more American markets, wine has become BIG BUSINESS there.

And sadly, more and more, wine retail in the U.S. has come to be dominated by so-called “big box” stores that have the ability to buy wine in extremely large quantities, thus driving down the end-user price.

That’s great news for consumers. And we are all for competitive pricing.

But one of the side-effects of this phenomenon is that it has become increasingly challenging for independent (and independently minded) wine and food shops to compete with the big box stores. As a result, it seems like there are fewer shops that specialize in wines like ours: Authentic wines that reflect local traditions and not just passing trends in the wine industry.

That’s just one of the reasons we were so thrilled to learn that the Jug Shop in San Francisco, one of the best independently owned and family-run wine retailers in the country had added our Otello to their shelves (above).

Our U.S ambassador and blogger Jeremy Parzen aka Do Bianchi (the dude who writes these posts) recently visited and led a staff training for the Jug Shop team (below).

One his way over, he stopped into Cheese Plus, a cheese shop that stands literally across the street from the wine shop. They expertly sliced some Prosciutto di Parma for him and hooked him up with a beautiful wedge of Parmigiano Reggiano. It was the perfect way to show why Ceci is such a popular wine in Italy and especially in Parma, where it makes for the greatest pairing with local salumi and cheeses.

Thank you, the Jug Shop! We love you! You are awesome…

The Jug Shop
1590 Pacific Ave.
San Francisco CA 94109
(415) 885-2922
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