Word: sideling
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Three years ago, Henry Sidel, 39, traded the fast track of vodka imports for sake. The former Brooklyn Brewery general manager and marketing director of Millennium Import started Joto Sake, an import firm, with $250,000 in equity and a personal lust for the drink. "More sake is sold in the U.S. than French champagne," he says dryly, sitting in his warehouse office in Manhattan. "People think of sake as a niche category...
Joto Sake now boasts 150 restaurants and retailers that offer its 10 brands from six Japanese producers. Sales doubled in 2006 from 2005, and Sidel expects to break even this year with revenue of a little more than $1 million. "Sake is transitioning from the image of being cheap, hot and in a little carafe that gets you hammered to one of a fine wine with a lot of complexity, flavor and craftsmanship," he says...
...craftsmanship and authenticity are exactly what sake drinkers seek. "People want authentic experiences," Sidel says. "When they buy sake, they want a piece of Japanese culture." Not being able to read the label, however, is like walking blindfolded off a flight to Tokyo: you may have arrived, but you won't get very far. For Americans, part of the intimidation factor with sake selection is not only lack of exposure but also those pesky Japanese characters. Even after four years of college-level Japanese, Sidel couldn't read the labels, so he has tried to carve out what he calls...
...worked with every distributor in the U.S. while he was the beverage director of Sushi Samba restaurants nationwide, Tanguay is a formidable player in the popularization of the drink and imported sake's upward trajectory. "So much of what goes into developing brands in this business is distribution," says Sidel. "This is true of management of any luxury good or product--who is buying it, who is drinking it--and that is determined by distribution...
EUROBLUES So Sue Me The courts have not been kind to Mario Monti and the European Commission, overturning three of his merger-busting decisions last year, including a union of packagers Tetra Laval and Sidel, and a linkup between travel firms Airtours and First Choice. So the gloom in Brussels must have been thick as a lawyer's wallet when it emerged that another thwarted suitor, France's Schneider Electric, is suing the Commission for more than €1 billion over its blocked bid for rival Legrand. Schneider had completed the €5.4 billion deal for Legrand when the Commission...