Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
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TALENT PATROL Towne Stove and Spirits (PICTURED) is one of the Boston restaurants that uses David Gordon's high-quality kegged wine. company he founded in 2012 with his friend Eric Ritvo. Its aim: to provide local upmarket restaurants, caterers, and concessionaires with reasonably priced, high-quality wines—in kegs. "Wine is practically in my blood," says Gordon, whose family owns Gordon's Fine Wines & Liquors in Watertown and Waltham. "As a kid, I would help my dad around the store, loading things in and out and counting the cash regisEating local: "The ter." And while the Newton native became restaurants I'm at most often are fascinated with wine during a post-collegiate Toro, Blue Dragon, trip to Bordeaux, he never planned on pursuand Scampo." ing the family business. "I had more Inspired by: entrepreneurial interests," says Gordon, who "People who are instead immersed himself in tech start-up able to overcome and real estate projects for a few years. adversity to But all of that changed when his good achieve success, like Albert Einstein friend Eric Ritvo one day asked for some and Stevie advice. "Two years ago, Eric came to me Wonder." because he wanted to follow his passion for Preferred pours: wine and was interested in doing something "Syrah and Rhône new. We started talking, and pretty soon we blends." were kicking around various innovative wine-related ideas—all of which involved providing wine from the tap. We felt there was an opportunity to become a wine-on-tap provider with a consistently great product." And so began Richer Pour, a company that specializes in offering kegged high-quality wine at a great value, says Gordon. He explains that their ability to source good wine in bulk, coupled with the elimination of glass, corks, and labels, slashes shipping costs and allows them to offer lower prices. Restaurants, in turn, can provide a better pour of wine at a better price to their guests. Another benefit: reduced waste. "The average restaurant loses between five and 10 percent of its by-the-glass wine pours when wine spoils in a bottle after it is opened," Gordon says. With their company's "tank-to-tap" system, the wine never touches air or gas, so no wine is DAVID GORDON'S RICHER POUR BRINGS NEW TECHNOLOGY TO wasted. Plus, the kegs are 100 percent recyclable. THE TIME-HONORED WORLD OF WINE. BY LINDSAY LAMBERT Today, Gordon's Richer Pour boasts 30 clients, including Toro, Blue Dragon, Stephanie's on Newbury, and Via Matta. "Twenty years ago [wine on tap] was t's probably a fair assessment that most 30-something men share a similar done with terrible wine, so an older demographic is hesitant. But once they set of goals: Nab the promotion. Then land the raise. Follow the rules, taste our wines, they're sold." Next stop? Expanding Richer Pour's reach and never, ever upset the boss. But 31-year-old Newton native David throughout New England's other major markets. For David Gordon, it's Gordon is the boss, and atop his own list of objectives is keeping the good to be boss, and even better to be taking the family business in a new momentum of his start-up wine business on the upswing. Gordon, who direction. Richer Pour Wines are available at Towne Stove and Spirits, 900 lives in the South End, is co-owner of Richer Pour, a Waltham-based Boylston St., 617-247-0400; richerpour.com BC INSIGHT I 62 PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEN RICHARDSON Keg Stand BOSTONCOMMON-MAGAZINE.COM 062_BC_SP_TP_David_Holiday_13.indd 62 11/1/13 12:28 PM