Terry Theise / Michael Skurnik

Hi all,

Has anyone heard news of a split or renegotiation of terms between Terry Theise and Michael Skurnik? Skurnik’s website no longer has links to the Theise catalogs, nor does there seem to be any mention of Theise anywhere on Skurnik’s site.

I am new to the WineBerserkers community but it seems that there is some great discussion happening here! Appreciate any insights anyone can offer.

Ben

I noticed the same thing when looking for a catalog the other day but didn’t know if it was just a quirk of the website or something more serious. Hoping someone on here knows.

I found out that-
Theise is no longer an employee
Skurnik still imports the wines

Nothing further to add at this time.

Thanks for the info, Ian.

He was an employee? I always assumed he had his own business.

At one point it probably was. If you look at their list of import partners, at least one (Brazos) has the autonomy to make distribution deals outside of the Skurnik network if they wish (which they do in Virginia) and my guess is that the others do as well. Terry is the curator and selector of the wines that bear his name, but in the 20+ years I’ve been getting them, the Skurnik label has always been right beside it. Hopefully this is an amicable situation, otherwise I could see a lot of his long time producers choosing to leave the American market if they have the means.

Good luck to Terry in his next endeavor. He is a great evangelist for Riesling and I love the catalogs.
A

“As you may have heard, we recently ended our business affiliation with Terry Theise. All producers from Germany, Austria and Champagne imported by Skurnik Wines will continue to be imported by Skurnik Wines and available through our nationwide network of distributors.

Gabe Clary, Vice President and Portfolio Manager for our “Germany, Austria and Champagne Estate Selections,” will head up this portfolio going forward, and we have the utmost confidence in his leadership for the future. We look forward to proudly representing these great producers for many years to come.

If you have any questions, please contact your Skurnik representative.”

Wow, what a surprise. I wonder what happened.

That’s an understatement. My “understanding” of the relationship was that Terry was the driving force, and Skurnik handled the logistics of actual importation and distribution. I never thought of Terry as an employee, I assumed it was a business relationship between the two.

Oh my…

Terry existed long before he partnered with Skurnik. Back in the day he had a similar partnership with Kronheim in the Baltimore/DC area. I find this really disheartening. Terry was my introduction to the wines of Germany and Austria. His trade tastings in the early 90s were epic affairs that took the enamel off my teeth.

I hope that this is him retiring in comfort rather than being pushed out and having his growers snatched.

How old is Theise? In his mid-60s at least, I’d guess. Maybe he decided to retire.

I don’t know anything about the situation here, but I’m sure Skurnik’s people developed direct relationships with the producers over many years. In Barolo, for instance, some producers who had been handled by Marco di Grazia via Skurnik dropped di Grazia and began dealing directly with Skurnik.

Another factor might be Skurnik’s big expansion into California and the Midwest in the last three years. The Theise wines used to be distributed by someone else on the West Coast, right? I can see how producers might not feel the need for a middleman like Theise if they could deal with one importer/distributor for most or all of the country. That’s just speculation, but I throw it out there as a possible factor.

The fact they’ve essentially scrubbed the site of everything with his name on it, including past catalogs, makes me worried it wasn’t on good terms. It’s like he’s taking all his intellectual property and leaving, so to speak.

Forgotten about Kronheim, I think he was transitioning away from them when I was getting started in the industry, but I think the store had some paper copies of his catalogs whit the Kronheim emblem on them.

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Speaking of which…

Terry is 66.

Where is this from?

My understanding, again, is that Skurnik was always the importer, but (at least here on the west coast) there was a different distributor who handled the Theise portfolio. I was told that several years ago Skurnik wanted greater distribution on the west coast, and offered that distributor their entire catalog to handle, which the distributor declined. So Skurnik pulled the Theise wines, and opened its own west coast operation to handle everything. But that’s separate from this recent disappearance from the Skurnik site. For many years, Terry would host a large number of his producers around the country, having both consumer and trade tastings (the consumer tastings ended maybe a decade ago or more). I used to sneak in to the trade tastings (with approval), and the latest one I went to a couple years ago was scaled back quite a bit, with no Terry presence, so maybe this has been in the works for some time?

Terry has an account here, but I don’t think he has posted since 2011, when he was a “special wine guest”.

FYI, the details of Skurnik’s Midwest expansion: Last year it bought Vintner Select, an Ohio-based distributor operating in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. (Link to press release.)

Was looking for the Theise catalogs and noticed the Skurnik site was scrubbed of any mention. Definitely seems like it wasn’t amicable.