Welcome to Master Wines
Master Wines is a family wine company owned and operated by Mel, Charlie and Janie Master in partnership with Winesellers Ltd., a national importing company based in Chicago. Their highly successful brands include Tortoise Creek from California, Le Charmel, Exem and Mont Gravet from France and Tiamo from Italy.
Tortoise Creek
Tortoise Creek is a very fine range of varietal wines from California, with an emphasis on sustainable farming.
Le Charmel
Le Charmel is a new line of exceptional wine finds from different parts of France, including a Red Rhone, a Muscadet sur lie and a Cote de Provence rose.
Tiamo
Tiamo is a line of excellent moderately priced Italian wines made from organic grapes. They all represent top quality wines from the best growers in their respective regions.
Exem Bordeaux
The concept of Exem is to provide the consumer with an uncomplicated and “non-threatening” avenue to discover the joys of fine Bordeaux.
Mont Gravet
Mont Gravet comes from vineyards located in the Gascony region, near the city of Toulouse in the South West of France. The climate combines the Oceanic and Mediterranean influences, which brings enough sun and humidity to grow rich, concentrated and ripe grapes.
Mel & Janie Master
Mel and Janie are from England but both now US citizens. Mel has been in the wine business ever since leaving school and he met Janie when they were only twelve and thirteen (she played the piano and he played the guitar!) and as they grew up together, they shared a passion for food and wine. They married at 19 and 20.
The couple left England to live in France in 1970 and started a company called Master Wines and began selling little known French wines in the USA. Mel was a pioneer in bringing great wine values to the USA from France.
Charles Master
Charles Master owned and operated Brix Wine Bar in Cherry Creek, Colorado after being the Catering Manager at The Caribou Club in Aspen. He also helped create the wines of Les Jamelles with Mel & Janie, lived in France and traveled the world to assist in selling their wine. He spent 4 years in Margaux working at Château Prieuré-Lichine, following in his fathers’ footsteps. Now the family stays close through the love and passion they put into each bottle of Tortoise Creek and Tiamo.
Winesellers, Ltd.
Winesellers is a national importing company based in Chicago. The Sager family who own Winesellers have been close family friends with the Master family for the last forty years. Today, the company is run by Yale and his two sons, Adam and Jordan and is one of the leading national importing and marketing companies in the USA. Masterwines and Winesellers are equal partners in Tortoise Creek, Tiamo, Exem and Mont Gravet.
Latest From the “Through the Grapevine” Blog
Provence – Le Charmel Rose, 2019
Mel and I have 50% of our hearts still in Provence. It is impossible to be stressed there.
Thanksgiving Alternatives
If, like us, you have had occasion to spend Thanksgiving by yourselves why take on the turkey at all? Vegetarians don’t. What about duck? What about vegetarians?
Houston
Doesn’t everyone want to be in Houston in July?!!! For us, the whole point of going to Houston IN JULY was to taste our Le Charmel, Tiamo and Tortoise Creek wines with our Texas importer, Pioneer Wine.
Harry Cipriani Finger Sandwiches
Today Harry’s Bar is famous the world over with outposts in New York and Buenos Aires. The restaurant invented the world-famous Bellini cocktail which is a mixture of Prosecco sparkling wine and pureed fresh peaches.
California Trip 2018
We had immense local asparagus spears with shaved pieces of Parmesan and I immediately knew I’d arrived in heaven.
Burgundy
With apologies to the great poet, John Masefield, I just want to tell you about a trip Mel and I took last month to Burgundy.
