By Rick McDaniel, Asheville Citizen-Times
Tuesday, June 4, 2002

ASHEVILLE – Can a Midwestern farm boy with an Ivy-league education find happiness importing fine French wines in the mountains of Western North Carolina?

Steve Pignatiello has.

Pignatiello (pronounced pin-a-TELL-o) is a nationally known importer of burgundy wines who also gives wine dinners at some of the most exclusive country clubs and restaurants in the Southeast. ‘If there’s anybody in town who knows Burgundy, its Steve,’ said Kevin Schwartz, general manager of Chops at Sunset Terrace at The Grove Park Inn Resort and Spa. ‘He’s extremely knowledgeable and has a burning passion for what he does. When he gets involved in something, he puts both hands around it and lives it.’

Rob Campbell of The Wine Guy, who stocks several of Pignatiello’s wines, agrees. ‘He firmly believes that the best wines in the world come from Burgundy,’ Campbell said. ‘His makers make wines with more quality than others. His wines are outstanding and the prices are very reasonable for the most part.’

Pignatiello was born in New Jersey, spent time in upstate New York and New England before graduating from high school in Centerville, Ohio. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1981 with plans to go into the environmental field. Immediately after graduation, things changed. ‘I was hired by one of my professors to teach either English as a second language or French, depending on whether we were in western Europe or the United States,’ he said.

This led to a chance meeting that started the ball rolling toward Pignatiello’s move to Asheville and involvement with wine.

‘One summer, we taught an intensive course in French for medical students who wanted to go to French medical schools,’ he recounts. ‘We had six weeks to teach them enough French to do this, so we looked around for a place with no distractions and settled on the campus of Western North Carolina University in Cullowhee. My wife, Gail, was one of the students I taught. Midwest farm boy meets Southern California beach girl in, of all places, Asheville, North Carolina!’

After Gail graduated, the couple moved to Loma Linda, Calif., and Pignatiello started Pignatiello Communications, a telecommunications company that was on the ground floor of the voice mail revolution.

After the couple decided to move back to the mountains of WNC, Pignatiello next owned a chain of hot tub and spa stores. Finally, on one of the couple’s annual trips to France in 1997, inspiration struck.

‘Gail and I took a week’s vacation in Burgundy, staying with a different wine maker each night, drinking their wine, and about halfway through the week, in this little cellar in Morey-Saint-Denis, Gail elbowed me and said, ‘Have you figured this out yet? The wine is fantastic, you can buy it dirt cheap, you have a degree in international business from SAIS at Johns Hopkins University ‘ it’s a business opportunity.”

So, in 1999, Pignatiello went back to France and ordered 125 cases of wine. ‘I was told I’d never be able to sell it,’ he says. ‘I sold out in a month.’

One of the keys to Pignatiello’s success is the personal relationships he has formed with the winemakers in these small vineyards. ‘I talk to them on the phone probably once a week, and each year I travel back to France to visit them, share a meal, and sample the new vintage.’

The roots of these small vineyards go deep into French history. ‘I went to France with him for a week and I tasted the wines of 10 makers,’ said Mark Rosenstein, chef/owner of The Marketplace, who offers several of Pignatiello’s wines. ‘I stood in the same parlor as Thomas Jefferson and bought wines from the same family and vineyard that he did over 200 years ago.’

Most of the wines Pignatiello imports cannot be obtained from anyone else in the United States. Some of the smaller cellars may only export a few dozen cases a year. Jean Aufauvre-Bouley, a respected vintner in Chassagne-Montrachet, only exports to Pignatiello, and then only 50 cases a year. ‘Laurence Jobard, winemaker for Maison Joseph Drouhin, has a personal estate called Domaine Gabriel Billard,’ Pignatiello said. ‘Her entire cellar would fit in a small living room. I’m the only person who imports it.’

As would be expected, Pignatiello is fluent in French, as are his wife and daughters. They speak French predominately at home.

In addition to holding tastings and wine dinners that feature pairings with the food of local chefs orchestrated by Cheri Jones, who studied wine pairing under some of the top chefs in the country, Pignatiello is actively involved in teaching sommeliers, as well as teaching the section on burgundies at the Cloister’s Food and Wine Classic as well as the Savannah Wine Experience. ‘When he does a tasting for my staff, he educates them,’ said Schwartz. ‘He starts with the pronunciation and goes into the story of each wine, where it comes from, who the maker is. His stories make it easy to sell the wine ‘ people remember them.’

Rick McDaniel writes about food and cooking for the Citizen-Times. Write him c/o the Asheville Citizen-Times, P.O. Box 2090, Asheville, NC 28802, fax him at 251-0585, call him at 232-0808 during business hours or e-mail him at southerncooking@charter.net.

Where to get the wines:
P. Comms International, Pignatiello’s company, doesn’t sell direct to the public. His wines may be found at The Wine Guy on Merrimon Avenue and Hendersonville Road. For more information, call 254-6500.