Mannie Berk, Emeritus Founder

After an earlier career in government in Chicago and Boston, and a few years writing and teaching about wine, Mannie Berk couldn’t resist the call of a vast quantity of old Madeira he found in London in 1987. Two years later he founded The Rare Wine Co. Since that time, he has made RWC America’s finest non-auction source for older wines, including Madeira, of which he is considered the country’s leading authority.

In 2011, he edited and co-authored the second edition of Noel Cossart’s Madeira, The Island Vineyard, which the International Cookbook Awards named the best book on European wines published in the United States that year. In 2002, he was named Food & Wine’s Best Wine Importer, and he is a three-time James Beard Award semi-finalist and two-time Wine Advocate Wine Personality of the Year.

Blake Murdock, Managing Director, National Wholesale

When Blake Murdock joined The Rare Wine Co. in 1999, the company's primary focus was on sales to private collectors. Over the next decade, as National Wholesale Director, he built RWC into one of America’s most respected import suppliers, with national or California distribution of such iconic producers as Alvaro Palacios, Jacques Selosse, Dominio de Pingus, Giacomo Conterno, Giuseppe Mascarello and Domaine Huet. Prior to joining RWC, he worked for the first desktop-published wine magazine, the International Wine Review, and learned the wine business at Michael Skurnik Wines, the highly respected New York wholesaler/importer.