Mike Steinberger, Slate. October 2010 The Rare Wine Co. ... an acclaimed Sonoma-based retailer, wholesaler, and importer. (It is the U.S. agent for Jacques Selosse, the king of grower Champagnes; represents Italian greats Giacomo Conterno and Giuseppe Mascarello; and earlier this year added the fabled Vouvray producer Domaine Huet to its portfolio.)

Ray Isle, NBC’s “Today” Show. April 2011
“For something truly special, I went to The Rare Wine Company.”

The James Beard Foundation Awards. 2009 and 2008
Semifinalist, Outstanding Wine & Spirits Professional:
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.
“The finest retail source in the U.S. for authentic Madeira is The Rare Wine Co. in Sonoma, CA.”

Josh Raynolds, International Wine Cellar. June 2011 “It wouldn’t be unfair to say that Madeira was on life support in the U.S. market until 2002, when Mannie Berk’s Rare Wine Company released the first bottlings in its Historic Series…”

Neal Martin, eRobertParker.com. November 2010
”Mannie Berk… Madeira’s indefatigable U.S. ambassador… If I were a wine collector, I would be phoning up The Rare Wine Company and checking out their Historic Series.”

Jon Bonné, San Francisco Chronicle. December 2010
”The Rare Wine Co., the import firm likely responsible for much of (Madeira’s) current revival… one of (Mannie) Berk’s genius strokes was to launch his Historic Series of Madeiras. These five, produced by the ascendant house of Barbeito, highlight the five noblest grapes of the island—Sercial, Verdelho, Bual, Malmsey and the nearly-lost Terrantez—but they do so in an American context, each honoring a U.S. city that did a steady trade in Madeira.”

Mike Steinberger, Slate. October 2010
"Mannie Berk… a historian of Madeira… a tireless advocate… When not tending to other business, he travels around the United States holding Madeira tastings for sommeliers, retailers, consumers, and journalists, all part of his quarter-century-long quest to ‘bring this country back to Madeira,’ as he puts it.”

Paul Einbund, 7x7. December 2010
“The best place to purchase Madeira for your home is absolutely The Rare Wine Company.”

Alice Feiring, December 2009
“Mannie Berk looks and sounds more professorial than merchant… The man (might be a saint, not sure yet) has been on a mission to save the soul and the reputation of Madeira…”

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

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.”

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.”

Daniel Patterson & Mandy Aftel, Aroma. 2004
“As the name implies, the Rare Wine Company is primarily an importer of fine and rare wines, but it also imports some of the best green olive oils from Tuscany, as well as a wonderful selection of tradizionale balsamic vinegar.”

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, The Art of Eating. 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
“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.”

Jordan Mackay, San Francisco magazine. Sept. 2010
“This Sonoma-based shop has an amazing collection of older wines from France, Spain, Portugal and Italy.”

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).”

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, California.”

Bloomberg. January 2000
“For those special wines that the corner liquor store just isn’t going to carry, turn to The Rare Wine Co. Just to peruse the catalog is to go on an expedition of discovery through some of the great vintages of the last century.”

Richard Nalley, Forbes Life. Fall 2008
“ ‘Can a great vinegar age like a great wine? The answer: maybe better. Mannie Berk of Sonoma’s Rare Wine Company focused his formidable scouting skills on barrels of Balsamico Tradizionale slumbering in the attics of Modena in Italy's Emilia-Romagna region. Waftingly complex in aroma and intensely flavorful — think, for example, of the concentrated power of white truffles — these inky, thick, artisan-made vinegars bear the same relationship to your supermarket balsamic that Dom Perignon does to Cold Duck. The Rare Wine Company's cream of the crop, the “explosively scented” Cristo Selezione della Nonna, and the “primordially viscous” Cristo Selezione Amelia are the rarest of the rare.’ ”

Daniel Patterson & Mandy Aftel, Aroma. 2004
“As the name implies, The Rare Wine Company is primarily an importer of fine and rare wines, but it also imports some of the best green olive oils from Tuscany, as well as a wonderful selection of tradizionale balsamic vinegar.

On Alessandro Masnaghetti’s viticultural maps:

Jancis Robinson. July 2010
“Superlative maps of Italy’s best wine communes.”

John Gilman, View from the Cellar. Nov.- Dec. 2009
“… beautiful and timely… large, tremendously detailed… includes detailed information on each cru… with its size, altitude, exposition and its relative stylistic bent. Under each cru’s section of data is also found who owns vines in this cru, and a small map that outlines where each proprietor’s parcel of vines are to be found in the cru in question. This is information that is simply unprecedented and is an invaluable resource for any Piemonte lover with a thirst for knowledge of the region, as well as its wines… I cannot recommend these gorgeous maps highly enough — don’t miss them.”

Gregory Dal Piaz, The Huffington Post and Snooth. December 2010. “I can spend hours with my wine maps… as I learn more about wine I find that they have become my most valuable resource! Alessandro Masnaghetti’s detailed maps of Piedmont and Tuscany are my current favorites, and are available either individually or in a set from The Rare Wine Co.”

Tom Maresca. June 2010
“I usually don’t get very excited about maps… These maps are more accurate, more detailed, and provide more information about sites, expositions, and ownership than any vineyard maps I have seen for any other wine region anywhere… Each one of Masnaghetti’s maps represents a massive effort, and for the real Barolo nut — of which, for better or for worse, I am one — all this data is candy for the baby… I think they are an amazing accomplishment.”