Today we’d like to introduce you to Leigh Hill
Hi Leigh, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
We actually fell in love with Vinho Verde wines when we got ‘stuck’ in Portugal in 2020 – we were living in London when I got pre-approved for my green card to come to the States…the day before the UK went in to lockdown!
So, having already handed in our notices to our jobs & apartment and unable to come to the states while I had a visa in process, we planned to spend the summer travelling Europe, which was beginning to open up again after COVID. Europe had a very dubious & unpopular ‘traffic light’ system, advising which countries could be travelled to, based on their case numbers, and one of the few ‘green’ countries was Portugal, so that’s where we decided to go at the beginning of July 2020.
And it was in Porto that we first tried a Vinho Verde wine and instantly fell in love with the light, crisp taste and refreshing spritz – and that’s basically all we drank until we were able to enter the states in October!
Excited to tell all of our family & friends about ‘green wine’, as it would be the perfect SoCal wine, we soon realised it was not something that was readily available here, and that’s when we had the crazy idea to start importing it to the US!
We then spent the next year & half researching how to start our own wine import & retail business – which seemed like an insurmountable challenge at the time but we just tackled one thing at a time, until May 2022, we decided we were ready to take the plunge – we quit our jobs, found a guide & translator (Diego Arrazola, who is now a very good friend and still an integral member of The Green Wine), and headed to the Vinho Verde to learn as much as we could about the region & it’s wine, from its producers.
We then spent 2 months travelling all nine sub-regions, visited 20+ wineries and tried about 250 different wines – an unforgettable experience for obvious reasons, but even more so as the longer we stayed, and the more we learnt, the more we fell in love with the place, it’s people & their wines, and the more we felt confident that we had made the right decision about starting this venture.
We then got back to the States, decided which wines we wanted to import, and then began the very difficult journey of actually getting the wines from rural, northern Portugal to Southern California – and on top of that, having to enter the extremely difficult and non-sensical world of alcohol licensing – just thinking about the COLA label process brings me out in a cold sweat!
But thankfully we got our alcohol licenses and managed to move forward with 10 producers and 30 wines – all FDA licensed and COLA approved – and our first shipment of 4000 bottles arrived in November 2022.
Then fast forward to now, where we just received our 10th shipment of wine two weeks ago and currently stock about 40 wines from three Portuguese wine regions!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I guess not having a background in wine or importing goods, or even not having ever started our own business before were definitely major struggles to overcome – a lot of learning as we went along really. I have a background in biology & I’m a trained chef, and Justin has a background and in e-commerce & sales, and can create websites – so between us we thought we had a good set of skills to start this venture. But I guess our main struggles are definitely related to the importing side – our business is very much controlled by the shipping companies – if there is any delay on their side then that massively affects us – if we have no wine, we have no business! Also, from our side, we need to make sure that we time placing our orders so that we don’t run of out of wine – that definitely happened a few times in our first year – but we think we’ve got the process down now, as soon as a shipment arrives we are already placing the next in order for it to arrive in time. Thankfully our customers are also very patient with us and don’t mind waiting a couple of weeks for this wine if we are still waiting for a shipment tio arrive!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Our main business is actually performing in-home Portuguese wine tastings. But this was not the business model we initially set out of with. Naively, at first, we just assumed we would sell dtc through our website, but then quickly realised that people were very unfamiliar Portuguese wine, which made them hesitant to purchase. We actually held a wine tasting with Justin’s sister’s neighbours & friends, primarily just to get feedback about the wines, but then quickly realised this might be an interesting business model, and that’s were we are today.
We perform about 3-5 in-home wine tastings a week, as well as attending 1-2 wine festivals a month, and then we also sell to stores & restaurants too. But I think the in home wine tastings really sets us apart – as well as having very unique wines!
We pride ourselves on having unique, small-batch, low-intervetion, affordable wines – the majority of our wines are in the $20-30 price range. We think high quality wine should be accessible & affordable, like it is in Europe. Unfortunately, the majority of the wines you find in grocery stores in the states are highly mass-produced, and you end up having to spend considerably more to find a quality bottle of wine.
Wine production in Europe is also strictly controlled and regulated to ensure that wine is made as naturally as possible – unfortunately there is little to no regulations in the states and you can really feel that when you consume a lot of wines made here – especially the next morning! We won’t say you won’t get a hangover with our wines, but have you ever noticed when you go to Europe, you can drink a lot of wine without getting drunk and never have a hangover – well it’s directly related to the quality of the wine being produced – our producers even say, wine doesn’t give you a hangover as it comes from the land and is made with love! But as someone who suffers from migraines as a result of the chemicals added to wine here (75 different chemicals are allowed by the FDA to be added to wine, which do not need to be in wine whatsoever!), I can attest to the difference – and as do our customers!
Justin & I will both tell you that our wine is our biggest selling factor, but a lot of people that have attended our wine tastings will probably tell you its us 😉 we’re very aware that a lot of our brand is Justin & I – the passion we have for Portugal and their wines is clear and then we just love educating people about wine as a whole. I think the wine industry can seem like a very closed world to the laymen and then just daunting due to the sheer amount of information there is to learn, so we love trying to make drinking wine and learning about wine accessible, interesting and fun!
So, if your readers are thinking about holding a party or a gathering of 8-20 people, and want to add a unique experience to their event, then they can book Justin and I! Our in-home wine tastings are completely free! We bring 8 Portuguese wines to taste and discuss – our tastings last about 2 hours, where we will teach you about Portugal and their unique grapes and wines, and tell you tales of our Portuguese adventures – and then you and your party can purchase your favourite bottles at the end!
What are your plans for the future?
Probably the most exciting thing I think we want to try and achieve this year is to begin tourism to Portugal. A lot of people who go to Portugal go as far north as Porto and are totally unaware of the how amazing & unqiue the Vinho Verde wine region is – all of which is accessible by car from Porto in under 2 hours. We want to take our customers to the vineyards where their favourite wines come from and give them very personal & uniquely Portuguese experience. So watch this space!
Pricing:
- Free wine tastings
- The majority of our wines range from $20 -$30
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thevinho.com/
- Instagram: @the.vinho
- Facebook: the vinho
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thevinho
