How four generations — with an assist from Etta James — brought the ultimate, age-worthy expression of Italian pinot grigio to our tables. At last.
It was June when Marty and David Taub first set foot in Trento, Italy.
The father-son team had just launched Palm Bay Imports earlier in the year and — despite many previous trips to The Boot — neither Taub had yet to visit this unique northeastern region with a history all its own and its fiercely independent people (a third of whom still spoke German).
As they took in the dramatic landscape, craggy mountains arcing skyward, David was immediately struck by how gorgeous his surroundings were. It was unlike anything he’d ever seen before.
“I felt like Alice in Wonderland,” he’d later tell Wine Spectator.
What had brought Marty and David to this remote and rugged Italian enclave was an interesting turn of events back home. The American public was beginning to take notice of Italy’s wines — from cheerful Lambrusco and bright Valpolicella to the Veneto’s white stalwart, Soave, which was cropping up everywhere. And like any gifted salesman would, David had not only watched this emerging trend, but saw a different opportunity where many others did not.
He wondered: how could Soave’s trademark bitter-almond note ever fully take hold in the domestic marketplace? Not only were Americans generally unaccustomed to “everyday” wine drinking the way their European counterparts were, but they still favored sweeter beverages with meals, like soft drinks.
With his instincts insisting that the U.S. wine drinker would prefer a more fruit-forward, sprightly white wine, David engaged his lengthy list of contacts across Italy, looking for something else to fit the bill. It didn’t take long for the phone to ring with a tip from a friend over in Italy. It was exactly the chance he was looking for; Marty and David booked flights straight away so they could investigate further.
Cantina Viticoltori del Trentino — a tightly knit cooperative of grape farmers tucked into the southern foothills of the Alps and the Dolomites — was looking for an “in” to the U.S. market. Proud of their network of heritage grape growers, many of whom were farming tiny plots of older vines, the cooperative also happened to be making small batches of white wine using a local, pink-skinned grape few outside of Italy had ever heard of: pinot grigio.
When Marty and David arrived at the Cantina, just a short drive from the city of Trento, they were greeted by a wine that was both light on its feet and brimming over with ripe orchard fruit characters — checking off each of the boxes David was betting Americans would flip for. The Cantina’s growers were rather bemused, however. Pinot grigio was a grape that, traditionally, no one was particularly interested in. It was also a little finicky to grow.
They offered up some of their carefully tended chardonnay, instead.
No.
Marty and David wanted something different. Something new and distinctly Italian. And the pinot grigio they tasted was just too delicious to refuse. They had found their Soave challenger, all right, and David was convinced it was going to be a success.
Back home in their small New York office, David poured a glass for their colleague, Mike Petteruti.
“It was truly delicious. David made me a believer then and there,” Mike recalls.
That fateful trip — searching for something to slake a thirst Americans didn’t even know they had — was the start of something big for Marty, David, their young company, and the industry at large. They’d uncovered a phenomenon. One that reverberated across the entire wine community and helped shape the landscape of Italian wine in America.
As pinot grigio skyrocketed to fame across the country in just a few short years, imported case numbers grew exponentially — both for Palm Bay Imports (which later became Palm Bay International) as well as other importers who’d also become enamored with this new, delicious white dynamo.
America had fallen in love. Not just with Italian wines, but with pinot grigio. And it was the Taubs who’d played happy matchmakers.
But David, whose evangelizing of the grape earned him the moniker “the Father of Pinot Grigio,” wasn’t done just yet.
Over the next 35 years, alongside his father, David tirelessly championed the finest wines of Italy, his beloved pinot grigio in particular. Along the way, he forged lasting bonds of business and friendship with some of the most respected producers in the country — names like Chianti Classico’s Rocca delle Macìe and the Veneto’s Bertani. Thanks in large part to David’s exuberance for great wine and devotion to exploration (along with his irresistible warmth), Palm Bay International grew to become one of the largest, most successful import businesses in the U.S.
As the first and second Taub generations laid that foundation, David’s young son Marc looked on in utter fascination. He had the unique advantage of watching his father and grandfather build the success of their business and pinot grigio in America from the ground up. As a young man, he attended dinners, tastings, and other events — soaking in the energy and verve of the people around him.
You see, passion like this runs in the veins; there’s no avoiding it. Marc knew there was no other place for him than by his father’s side, like his father before him, bringing the world’s most wonderful wine to America.
David Taub was not a tall man, but if you were lucky enough to have met him, you knew exactly how his gregarious nature could quickly fill a room, drawing people to him like a magnet. Always quick with a welcoming smile and laughter, eyes twinkling … it was hard not to fall into step with him and feel swept up in his enthusiasm.
Marc — now President and CEO of Palm Bay International — knew not long after David’s unexpected passing in late 2012 that he wanted to create a tribute to his beloved dad. A special project that would encapsulate the passion which helped launch the company decades earlier. A fitting homage to a man who loomed large in so many lives.
The only place to catch that kind of lightning in a bottle? Back to where the Taub’s Palm Bay chapter began — Trentino.
In the years since David’s inaugural Trentino trip, the family had been back at least once a year, every year. It became something of a second home to Marc, who remembers with vivid clarity the day his dad took him on a speedy vineyard cruise, up a (particularly precarious) mountain road, just outside Trento.
As that memory bubbled to the surface, the project took shape in Marc’s head.
With his own son Jake by his side, Marc began connecting some very important dots. First, he put in a call to his friends at the helm of the Cantina, and then to local Trentino winemaking talents Anselmo Martini and Fabrizio Marinconz with his idea: Let’s create the ultimate expression of my father’s favorite grape, pinot grigio.
They, of course, were thrilled to help.
Marc also enlisted one of Italy’s most celebrated wine consultants, Carlo Ferrini, to advise them all, from the vineyard to the winery. Carlo, who’d known the Taubs for years, happily agreed to help them bring their vision to life.
Everything had to be just right. And it all had to start with the perfect grapes.
To find them, the team reached out to their friends at the Istituto San Michele all’Adige (Italy’s premier winemaking school, now known as the Fondazione Edmund Mach, with whom they had a long-standing relationship).
Together, they launched an exhaustive, multi-year study of the region to locate the ideal vines. Their research — which employed a sophisticated analysis of soils, heat days, ripeness, water table data, and beyond — uncovered several small plots across Trentino’s Bleggio Superiore, Valle di Cavedine, and Valle dei Laghi.
In each locale, there were grapes thriving at up to a staggering 1,300 feet above sea level — with icy-cool mountain winds buffeting the fruit, these extreme conditions really pushed the limits of where pinot grigio could be cultivated.
But the fruit, they all agreed, was nothing short of extraordinary. Nuanced, brimming with tender orchard fruit character and cheek-pinching acidity, with an unmistakable mountain-grown minerality and structure — everything about these grapes pointed not just to a great-tasting wine, but a wine with serious aging potential. Rare, indeed, for a pinot grigio.
The quality of what they had to work with was so unmistakable in fact, they decided to also launch a special “field blend” using the Valle dei Laghi fruit. Showing off this regionally classic, old-school blend of sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, gewürztraminer, and riesling would create a wine to finally shine a spotlight on the major fine-wine chops of Trentino. Something David had believed in for his whole career.
With a phenomenal team in place and the right vineyard sites secured, Marc’s mind wandered to the name. What in the world were they going to call it?
It wasn’t until weeks later, while on a family vacation, that Etta James stepped in.
Strains of her recording of “At Last” wafted into earshot, and instantly Jake thought of his granddad, who’d always loved the song. Something — call it that famous Taub intuition — urged him to look up the Italian translation for “at last.”
Infiné.
Such a lovely, lilting word that also winked at the infinite, a timeless linking of generations. The addition of “1939,” David’s birth year, further deepened the connection; to their age-worthy field blend, they added the English “At Last.”
For the crowning touch, Marc designed a custom bottle. David was an avid collector of glass — everything from fine Lalique and Tiffany to Italy’s signature Murano. He brought something new home with him every time he traveled.
With its high shoulders (David’s favorite shape), beveled inlay, and embossed punt, the dark green glass bottle is a work of art unto itself — and only hints at the breathtaking liquid inside.
After spending a year resting in bottle — a rarity, especially for pinot grigio — the inaugural 2015 vintages of the Taub family’s Infiné wines were released to great acclaim, including 90+ point scores and a “Year’s Best” rave from Wine & Spirits.
A few vintages on, and the Infiné wines continue to be an impressive display of age-worthy whites from Italy’s north that are worth getting to know. And that are worth tucking away in your cellar — they’ll both age beautifully for quite a few years.
It took a few years to breathe life into a tribute that befit a man like David Taub. But together, a devoted and ambitious father and son — the next generation with an indefatigable passion for the world of fine wine and spirits — achieved a new level of pinot grigio greatness.
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