By Anne W. Semmes
Stepping into Val’s West Putnam Wines store at holiday time is to enter a beehive of greetings between customers and staff along crowded corridors embraced by floor to ceiling shelves of spirits of every kind. But with all the friendliness one can be confused over who is staff, who is customer, and who is boss.
“We’re run as a family business,” explains Val’s second-generation owner, Jeb Fiorita. “Many of the customers think we’re all related, which is quite funny because [staffers] Santiago’s from Peru, and Diaby is from Africa. We also have an army of Val volunteers that help us carry out missions and tasks on a daily basis.”
Case in point: this reporter arrives to find all staff engaged, when a young customer friend offers help to another needing service. Jeb gives a smile and shares, “We have customers who are actually employees! We are very lucky.”
Jeb Fiorita, since taking over his father Val’s business over ten years ago, has established even a town-wide community friendly footprint. Name a fundraising event that supports town schools, fire departments, police, the YMCA, and the Old Timers, and you’ll see Jeb there on the golf course. “There certainly isn’t a party in this town that occurs without a beverage in hand,” notes Jeb. With Jeb comes his brand, “Val’s Wines” that now includes two stores, the other in Glenville. Without providing food and wine,” says Jeb, “We couldn’t get the townspeople to come gather and support as effectively as we do.”
Jeb recalls first walking into his ailing father Val Fiorita’s store straight off a plane from England, where he’d worked in finance for six years. “I didn’t know what to expect or even think what could be possible. But he was determined, he says, “to put myself out to the community. I was very actively involved and going outside of these four walls to be a part of the town and many charitable events.”
After all, living in Cos Cob, he attended town schools, and enjoyed the Boys and Girls Club, the YMCA, and Greenwich Boy Scouts. “I know there’s the need to raise money and help these organizations and the great people that work within them. I feel a sense of responsibility. I have the capability, the ability to help, in being a member of my community. It’s not even a decision. It’s being able to help your fellow man. And, thankfully, I’m in a position to be able to help in certain ways.” Lodged in his memory is what his mom told him as a youngster, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
But growing up under an entrepreneruing father in the wine business did not equate with becoming savvy about wine and champagne and beer. “Dad didn’t really want myself and my brother Jason necessarily exposed,” he says. “We both had other directions.” It was in England, dining out in fine restaurants in the finance world, that Jeb became aware of “an element of sophistication about beverages.”
So, in following years, Jeb did his due diligence traveling “extensively to trade shows around the world to meet the suppliers.” A brief venture in an import company had Jeb “touching the soils and the grapes, to hear firsthand how wines are made, how the business is done, and how it’s different from nation to nation.”
He came to appreciate that wine making “is really farming. Many of these people with big companies are generational farmers. That land is part of their blood, their pride in their work. They wake up every morning and assure they’re putting out the best part they can.” He would share the message of those “great wine producers” by introducing their bottles of quality wines to his customers. His quest is in “educating and providing a daily experience which all of us at some level can periodically afford – a beverage at night. We should enjoy it as we are enjoying our food. Just like when you get that big, juicy steak or that salad you crave, we should have the same sort of sensory enlightenment enjoyment. We all deserve after a long stressful day at work some real fun. There’s a taste and flavor out there for everyone. It’s our job to expose our client base to what’s right for them and give them an appreciation and a knowledge to make correct decisions.”
To that end, Jeb offers free Friday and Saturday tastings in-house, from 4-7 p.m., featuring a wine maker or brand ambassador. “It helps a person determine what he likes or dislikes.” And then there are those in-home wine tasting dinners Val’s hosts. “The pairing of foods and wines is so critical in so many instances. You really see the marriage of wine and food. Some of those combinations are magic. I have had experiences where things are matched, and you say you never want these tastes to end.”
A favorite example of Jeb’s is of homemade chocolate cookies and that rare bottle of Amarone red wine. With lamb his mouth waters for the red burgundy, Pinot Noir.
So, what are Fiorita family beverage traditions for the holidays? A good eggnog Jeb loves, but lacks the recipe. The wine of choice? A Bordeaux. His parents would “pull out a nice Bordeaux and typically one that would have a little bit of age out of the bottle.” Their generation, he notes, “proceeded New World wine, be that American, South American, Australian or New Zealand. It was mainly European wine and the French wines they considered best.”
Perhaps in keeping that red wine tradition, Jeb suggests a bottle of Petit Chateau as a “very affordable Bordeaux, under $10, up to $25, with many gems in the 2015 vintage accessible in the market today. They have a wonderful fruity quality to them.”
For white wine lovers he suggests a bottle of Domaine de la Solitude ($50) from the region of Chateauneuf du Pape (Home of the Pope). They are most heralded for their red wine, but their lesser known white wines have a lot of body, texture and structure and will stand up with many food dishes, as well as warm you on the chilly nights. Drink at room temperature.”
And, now its bubbly recommending time. “No one makes sparkling wine better than the region of Champagne. They have unchallenged grapes.” He suggests a bottle of Billecart Salmon Brut Rose with that once a year price of $80.
For Prosecco lovers Jeb chooses Altaneve ($30) as a special treat. “The craft and care is second to none. The grapes grow at high elevation on the hillsides, and are handpicked. No machines go in these fields. It’s still priced under champagne prices.”
Jeb starts on Spanish sparkling wines, mentioning Cava when that young female customer friend, who came to the aid of another, interrupts to say goodbye. He tells her, “We always need you,” and she leaves with a smile. “As I sit here,” he says, “one volunteer leaves, another arrives. We try to help the community, and the community in turn helps us to be different and provide a unique experience.
“My grandparents came over from Italy. I feel very fortunate that I have found a career that I am impassioned about, and enables me to enjoy my daily work. But it also gives me a platform to aid other members of the community.”
