The James Beard Foundation Awards. February 2008
Outstanding Wine & Spirits Professional Nominee:
Mannie Berk of The Rare Wine Co., for a significant national impact on the wines and spirits industry.

The Wine Advocate. December 2002 & December 2004
Pierre Rovani’s Wine Personalities of the Year: Mannie Berk, Proprietor, “The Rare Wine Co. A fabulous retail/importing operation in Sonoma, California... one of the finest sources for finding the world’s best wines.”

Food & Wine. October 2002
Best Importer – 2002 American Wine Awards

The Wine Enthusiast. 2003
Top Five U.S. Retailers – 2003 Wine Awards

Forbes FYI. Winter 2003. “The Rare Wine Company makes its readers instant insiders in a European-oriented wine bazaar that has included everything from offerings of first-edition wine books to artisanal olive oils and antique crystal decanters. But most of all, the catalogs trade on Berk’s indefatigable wine scouting. He puts his 6,000 customers both ahead of the curve—he introduced such now-prized cult favorites as Italy’s Tua Rita and Spanish icon Alvaro Palacios—and so far behind it (with, say, century-old Madeiras) that The Rare Wine Company may sometimes be one of the sole sources.”

Bloomberg. January 2000. “For those special wines that the corner liquor store just isn’t going to carry, turn to the Rare Wine Co... the Sonoma, California-based outfit has a superb collection of high-quality, low-production bottles from Madeira, Italy, Spain, France, Australia, and California. Just to peruse the catalog is to go on an expedition of discovery through some of the great vintages of the last century. In addition to the hard-to-find wines offered, there are also carefully selected books on wine and a collection of artisanal olive oils, each with a distinctive character.”

Food & Wine. November 1996. “The Rare Wine Company stocks about 800 irresistable bottlings, among them a portfolio of Vega Sicilia Unico from 1953 to 1985, Madeiras back to 1795 and sometimes 20 vintage of Australia’s Grange Hermitage. When we read the extensive descriptive notes, we want everything. The selection of great Italian Barolos is the best of any catalog, and prices are consistently lower than other old-wine catalogs. The wines are in impeccable condition; shipping and service are tops.”

Robert Parker, Parker’s Wine Buyer’s Guide. Sixth Edition. 2002. “The finest retail source in the U.S. for authentic Madeira is The Rare Wine Co. in Sonoma, CA.”

Steve Tanzer, International Wine Cellar. July 1997
“Today the best American source of old Madeiras.”

Wine & Spirits. December 2001
“The oldest wines we tasted came by way of the indefatigable Mannie Berk, Sonoma’s Rare Wine Company, who’s made a career out of tracking down and importing elusive, ancient, vintage Madeiras — a task made ever more challenging by the slowly diminishing stocks on the island.”

Wine Enthusiast. November 2006
“... (The Rare Wine Co.'s Historic Series) set the bar as benchmark offerings of non-vintage Madeiras ..."

Pete Wells, Food & Wine. November 1998
“Mannie Berk sells a range of extraordinary old Madeiras through his California-based Rare Wine Co.”

Forbes FYI. Winter 2001
“The Rare Wine Company is the baby of America’s Madeira ultra-connoisseur, Emanuel Berk. His catalog lists Madeiras going back to 1795 (a Terrantez bottled by Barbeito).”

Wine Journal. Fall 1999
“The Rare Wine Co., renowned for being the best source of vintage Madeira in the U.S. The firm is the most active importer of old Madeiras, as exclusive agent for the old vintages of both Barbeito and D’Oliveira, in addition to some private sources on the island of Madeira.”

The Wall Street Journal. July 2000
“No wonder it was the favorite of the Revolutionaries— and all the rage well into the 1800’s... Emanuel Berk, Madeira specialist and founder of the Rare Wine Company, who has researched the subject exhaustively to document the rarified old Madeiras his firm has purchased. ‘If they toasted with anything,’ he says of the Founding Fathers, ‘it probably was Madeira.’”

Food & Wine. January 2000
“Mannie Berk of The Rare Wine Company lives up to his moniker, Mr. Madeira...”

Wine Spectator. November 1998
“In America during the 18th and 19th centuries, Madeira became the wine of choice and the fashionable drink of society families from New York and Boston to Savannah. Rare Wine Co.’s Mannie Berk, an importer and scholar of Madeira, collects vintage wine books and letters chronicling this period. Numerous letters detail the adventures of Peter Cossart in America in 1834 and ’35, selling Madeira from Mobile, Alabama to Montreal...’”

Ed Behr, The Art of Eating. Winter 1998
“The Rare Wine Co. has the most discriminating selection of olive oil I know.”

Matt Kramer. March 2003
“A top source of extremely fine Tuscan olive oils is The Rare Wine Co. in Sonoma, California (800/999-4342; rarewineco.com). Each year its owners visit olive oil producers and choose specific batches. These are always vintage-dated and shipped in temperature-controlled containers. Prices are unusually fair.”

Sam Gugino, Wine Spectator. June 2004
“‘I really do believe that Tuscan oils are the best in the world. If I didn’t I’d be selling a lot of others,’ says Emanuel Berk, owner of The Rare Wine Co. in Sonoma, California, which has been importing high-end Tuscan such as Prunatelli, Monte and Vetrice since 1995... Classic Tuscan oils, says Berk, have ‘an archetypal richness, weight, intensity and palate persistence that other oils don’t have’... To prove wrong the notion that Tuscan oils must be consumed within 18 months, Berk sent me Prunatelli 1996, his all-time favorite. Mellowed by time, it was still a vibrant green gold and had a rich, herbal taste.”

Ed Behr, International Wine Cellar. May/June 1999
“Since I last wrote, I’ve discovered what is surely the best American source for fine Tuscan olive oil: The Rare Wine Company.”

Travel and Leisure. December 1999
“For peppery, perfectly grassy olive oils that evoke farm stays in Tuscany, try The Rare Wine Co. Get on their mailing list, and you’ll receive 16 mostly wine-oriented newsletters a year. In December, watch for word that the olio nuovo, made from the first hand-picked olives of the season, and bottled on a few family estates, has arrived. Be warned: Once you taste new olive oil, you won’t be going back to garden-variety extra virgin.”

Playboy Magazine. November 1998
“Now that we all have had time to savor the good but mass-produced extra-virgin olive oils, we thought we should alert you to the top tier of oils— those made in Tuscany in vintage small batches. The trees of Tuscany can yield a rich, pungent and extremely aromatic oil (and the yield may be as small as two or three half-liters per tree) ... To buy and learn more about these oils, call the Rare Wine Co. at 800-999-4342.”

Food & Wine. November 1996 “Our favorite source of old wines.”

Jancis Robinson, Financial Times. December 2004
“I would again urge you to experience the pleasures of mature wine... Retailers who specialise in single bottles of older wine which have a reputation... include the Rare Wine Company of Sonoma (the only American source recommended).”

Los Angeles Times. August 1996
“Rare Wine Co. has a huge stock of older wines dating to the 18th century.”

Robb Report. January 2002
“For a taste of history, your best bet for locating the right rare wine is through a dealer such as the Rare Wine Co.
in Sonoma, Calif.”

Steven Shaw, Fat-Guy.Com. December 2001 “In my opinion the best selection of balsamico tradizionale in America. We’re talking the absolute most premium stuff... Totally eye-opening.”