Mario Luna is the one who gives the face to Amparo Wines. His job is to sell and share the passion of the company from direct sales to restaurants and as manager of Vigneron, a wine cellar located in the Roma neighborhood of the CDMX, where wines with unique stories and innovative winemaking processes are uncorked.
Mariana Barrán and Taylor Goodall, owners of the Hotel Amparo in San Miguel de Allende, are the creators of Vinos Amparo. Their decision to venture into the world of wine arises when they arrive in Mexico and discover that many of their favorite wines are not in the country. So, they decide to open their own distributor in 2018 and share unique wines with their customers.
“Vinos Amparo arose from the idea of sharing labels created by small producers who work with minimal intervention in the winery and create expressive wines. It is the way they found to share what they had drunk,” says Mario Luna.
Sharing this philosophy with the owners, Mario Luna decided to join the company, after having studied a wine diploma at Grupo Ambrosía and after working in a French restaurant in Monterrey.
“I met them because they were wine distributors at Grand Cru, the restaurant where I worked in Monterrey. Immediately their catalog caught my attention and I started buying wine from them for myself. Then I read that they had a vacancy, I applied and stayed as part of the team,” says Mario.
Names such as Seról, Jean-Claude Bessin, François Mikulski and Arnaud Lambert stand out in their portfolio. Vinos Amparo distributes jewels from France and some labels from Spain. Its products can be purchased online and its main market is restaurants in Mexico City.
It also has Vigneron, a wine cellar located on Jalapa Street in Mexico City, where diners can accompany each bottle with snacks created by Nogal Nogal’s chefs. Here, Mario Luna is in charge of guiding visitors through the regions of France that inhabit the Vinos Amparo portfolio.
“I’m still a sommelier on the floor and having contact with people, I really love my job,” he concludes.
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