Napa, CA – The Scale Wine Group, founded in 2016 by Des Echavarrie, MS (formerly Director of Sales, Realm Cellars) and Bryan Lipa (formerly Director of Sales, Staglin Vineyards), will be representing Eden Rift nationally, fulfilling the role of National Sales Manager/Director of Sales for one of the Central Coast’s most exciting emergent brands.
Eden Rift, located in the Cienega Valley AVA, which straddles Monterey and San Benito counties, joins a portfolio that includes Cornell Vineyards, Jones Family Vineyards, Kanzler, Memento Mori and Weingut Bossert, to name just a few. Daily sales management of Eden Rift will be under the purview of Scale’s Will Dale (formerly Director of Sales, Barnett Vineyard) who will be focusing his efforts on building distributor relationships, while guiding the Eden Rift portfolio toward dynamic and sustainable wholesale placements.
The Scale Wine Group works closely with a broad network of distributors, and on- and off-premise accounts across forty-three states nationwide, giving voice and representation to an elite handful of wineries throughout primary, as well as secondary markets. “Unlike a traditional broker, the first priority at Scale is to elevate wine brands and build momentum in the market. The needs of small wine producers often get overlooked in the wholesale channel. Scale Wine Group has developed a unique approach to wholesale which focuses on building connections between individual wines and tastemakers in the market,” says Lipa. Under vine since 1849, Eden Rift is the oldest continuously producing estate vineyard in California, focusing primarily on the growing and making of site-specific Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, borne of limestone and dolomite-rich soils.
Owner Christian Pillsbury is the first in a long line of owners to return the estate to its origins in Pinot Noir, first planted there by a French wine merchant, Theophile Vache, in the 1840’s. Vache simply called the iconic grape variety, Black Pinot. Pillsbury, who became a serious student of the world’s benchmark wines after being mentored by the inimitable Martine Saunier of Martine Wines, went on to play an integral role in Coravin, the maker of a sophisticated wine preservation tool, where he helped establish the brand across Asia. “I have known the team at Scale Wine Group since Eden Rift was just an idea,” Pillsbury says. “Des, Bryan, Will, and the team are not only great friends of ours, but are the creative professionals we are going to need to build upon Eden Rift’s recent successes in the strangest market we’ve ever seen!”
To learn more about Eden Rift and the Scale Wine Group, please visit https://scalewine.com/portfolio-list/eden-rift-vineyards.
