Meet Debra Del Fiorentino of Wine Competitions Administration & Manufacturing

Commercial

This Sonoma County entrepreneur is liable for greater than a dozen prestigious tasting occasions, together with the upcoming Sundown Worldwide Wine & Spirits Competitors.

By Alexandra Russell

What does it take to revive a beloved model? Scratch that: not simply “revive,” however to carry it again greater and higher? Persistence, perseverance and imaginative and prescient. Simply ask Debra Del Fiorentino, founder and president of Wine Competitions Administration & Productions (WCMP), who, in 2018, set her sights on resuscitating the dormant Sundown Worldwide Wine Competitors.

A little bit of historical past 

Based in 1898, Sundown journal was initially used as a promotional device by Southern Pacific Railroad to persuade leisure vacationers to journey West on the corporate’s Sundown line. Within the Twenties, Sundown was bought by a pair of brothers and rebranded to replicate an idealized Western way of life. For nearly a century, it delivered articles targeted on residence, backyard, journey, meals and adventures.

The journal underwent a speedy sequence of possession modifications within the Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s. The end result was a severely scaled-back model of the once-mighty Western juggernaut. By 2020, the journal had migrated to an online-only format.

Among the many cutback casualties over these years was the Sundown Worldwide Wine Competitors, which ceased operation in 2017, regardless of its reputation and stellar popularity. 

A pure development

“I’m like a pitbull after I need one thing,” laughs Del Fiorentino. “I don’t let go.” Proof of that assertion will be present in her skilled historical past, which reads like an aspirational how-to.

Born and raised in San Francisco, Del Fiorentino based Vita Buona (“To the Good Life”), a connoisseur grocery retailer, in Marin County within the Nineteen Eighties. Earlier than too lengthy, she had expanded her choices from cheese and charcuterie to meals to-go. That shift led to The Large Occasion, a catering and occasion manufacturing firm that boasted a number of massive company purchasers in The Metropolis and past. 

It was round this time she began learning wine with Wilfred Wong. She bought The Large Occasion however stayed on as a advisor for one 12 months, throughout which period she pursued her curiosity in wine by attending the CIA’s Wine Program in St. Helena, Calif. Inspiration really struck within the early Nineteen Nineties, when she heard winemaker Carol Shelton talk about judging a contest.

“I knew I wished to guage,” says Del Fiorentino. “I simply wasn’t certain find out how to get began.” 

Seizing alternatives

An opportunity alternative opened that door, and Del Fiorentino stepped via enthusiastically. “A sick good friend who was supposed to guage a close-by competitors known as me to take their place final minute,” she recollects. “I used to be actually nervous at first, however I beloved it. I knew instantly I wished to maintain going.”

Her research had, by then, paid off with a WSET Stage 3 sommelier designation; she’s additionally an authorized specialist of wine (CSW) and a licensed wine skilled (CWP). “As soon as I began, I wished to be taught the whole lot there was to learn about wine,” she says. “And, it seems, I’ve a extremely good palate.”

By 2012, Del Fiorentino was judging repeatedly and was working with Rob Merletti, proprietor of the now-defunct Winery & Vineyard Administration journal, serving to arrange the 4 competitions owned by the publication: Worldwide Girls’s Wine Competitors, Worldwide Jap Wine Problem, West Coast Wine Competitors and the Harvest Wine Problem. 

When the journal hit dire monetary straits just a few years later, Del Fiorentino bought the competitions department of the enterprise from Merletti and set about constructing her subsequent firm. At present, WCMP owns and operates 13 competitions throughout the wine and spirits spectrum and is broadly acknowledged to be a top-notch operation. Its competitions embrace The Press Democrat North Coast Wine Problem, Harvest Problem, East Meets West, Worldwide Girls’s Wine Competitors, Worldwide Girls’s Spirits Competitors,  Expertise Rosé, Craft Distillers Spirits Competitors, Los Angeles Invitational Wine and Spirits Problem, Sundown Worldwide Wine  Competitors and Sundown Worldwide Spirits Competitors (Sundown is the naming sponsor for these final two).

Sundown rises once more

When Del Fiorentino first approached Time Warner about bringing again the Sundown Wine Competitors, she was met not with resistance, however with apathy. “[They] didn’t need to trouble. It took virtually a 12 months of conferences earlier than we began making progress…after which the journal bought once more and I needed to begin over.”

This time, armed with hard-earned information from her earlier try, Del Fiorentino succeeded in her mission. In 2018, WCMP put out a name for entry to the brand new and improved Sundown Worldwide Wine & Spirits Competitors. 

Usually, a brand new wine competitors begins modestly, however not Sundown. That first 12 months took Del Fiorentino and her workforce without warning with an awesome variety of entries — extra, in truth, than the competitors had ever acquired in its earlier iteration. “We knew we had a success,” she says now. “Entries simply stored coming and coming.” 

Incorporating a spirits arm into the competition solely added to the enchantment. “It simply made sense,” says Del Fiorentino. “We revived Sundown proper on the first peak of the craft spirits growth. Distillers have been searching for methods to face out and entice customers.”

In response to Sundown, the wine and spirits competitors is designed to draw all producers concerned about reaching the Western ingesting viewers and juried by the area’s greatest judges, who carry an understanding of the Western palate and way of life to their process. This competitors additionally makes its profitable wines a part of essentially the most influential wine program within the nation, as Sundown is dedicated to selling its winners.

All the time Shocking

Since 2018, the Sundown Worldwide Wine & Spirits Competitors has grown exponentially, even via the COVID-19 pandemic.

Del Fiorentino labored along with her native county board or well being to develop and implement security protocols for internet hosting a wine competitors (judges, backroom and assist employees) in the course of the shutdown. Her work — which incorporates distancing, temperature and vaccination checks, masks protocols and shifting tasks inside the onsite group to reduce cross contamination — has since been adopted by related occasions throughout the nation.

When judges are known as to their tables this June, they’ll be met with protected {and professional} lodging, in addition to 1000’s of potential winners. “I get excited each time,” says Del Fiorentino, referring to the beginning of a contest. “There are all these entries, and any certainly one of them might be one of the best. I like the method of evaluating, discussing, debating — typically arguing — and slowly narrowing the sphere till just one wine or spirit is left.”

The 2022 Sundown Worldwide Wine & Spirits Competitors will happen June 7-8 in Santa Rosa, Calif. Deadline for entry is Might 30. For extra data, go to https://sunsetcompetitions.com/sunset-international-wine-competition.

____________________________________________________

Alexandra Russell

Alexandra Russell is Managing Editor at Wine Trade Advisor. She will be reached at [email protected]

Commercial