"When Sansi, Mike Stolese’s 3-foot-high, spirited, 2-year-old Great Dane, greets visitors at the entrance to The Vermont Wine Merchants property on South Champlain Street in Burlington, it’s a sign Stolese is nearby. Named for Stolese’s favorite Italian vineyard, Sansi often wanders through the 6,700 square feet of warehouse and office space, trying to tempt one of the 20 employees to play tug-of-war. If not wandering, she can usually be found at rest beneath the antiqued plank table in the wholesaler’s tasting room.

Sansi’s life is indicative of the way business is run at Vermont Wine Merchants: Everybody plays and works hard and is passionately dedicated to providing good wine to restaurants, resorts and independent retailers around Vermont. “If you can’t have fun in the wine business, there’s something wrong with you,” says Stolese. 

Stolese and his partner, Joerg Klauck, met 14 years ago, working for Hungarian Cellars, a small wine importer in Burlington, where they helped set up a distribution business. Realizing the relationship wasn’t working, they quit, and soon after used the contacts they had made to set themselves up in their own wholesale wine business....

to read more visit: http://www.vermontguides.com/2008/01-jan/vt_wine.html