About us
Who are we?
Freddy
Hi, I’m Freddy Cicerchia, the father in Father Daughter Wine. For the last forty years I helped run the sixth largest wine importer and wholesaler in the United States, doing everything from buying to sales, and of course training and educating people in wine.
My father was in wine, beer and spirits and when I started in the industry back in the early 1970s there really was no wine culture to speak of in the United States. There were a few tiny fine wine stores that catered to a knowledgeable consumer who’d been brought up with old world wines, namely from France, but wines from other countries were just starting to become popular. We had Mateus from Portugal and German wines like Blue Nun, but California hadn’t quite debuted yet as they were still producing bulk wine.
So I started right at the beginning of the fine wine era and watched it develop over my career. I’ve been to just about every country where they make wine, from South Africa to New Zealand to the most famous growing areas of France, Italy, and Spain.
I’ve worked with wineries, restaurants, and hotels, but my real passion has always been helping people learn more about wine so they can make more informed choices and explore a diversity of great wines from around the world.
Besides it being my profession, wine has always been something I love and I’m excited to share my knowledge of wine with you!
Meredith
Hi, I’m Meredith, the daughter in Father Daughter Wine. I spent much of my childhood learning about wines. From understanding how to identify the aromas in a glass, to looking at the intricacies of color in the wine and swishing it in stemware to see its legs, some of my earliest childhood trips were spent visiting wineries in Italy, France, and California.
My first job was even at a winery! After high school, my father sent me to France to learn about wines from the Rhône region.
Majoring in French and Italian at Georgetown and waitressing in bars and restaurants on the side, I always imagined I’d go into the wine industry, but life had other plans for me and I ended up pursuing postgraduate degrees in language education and moving to England, Spain and France in the meantime.
Since then, I’ve been busy raising my own son and developing my career as a freelance writer, but I couldn’t say no when my dad proposed we work together to put his lifetime of knowledge into an accessible format.
Thanks to my father, I grew up immersed in a wine culture and I’m looking forward to sharing that culture with you too!
The Project
Father Daughter Wine is all about giving everyday people a basic understanding of wine that will help support them in making good wine decisions. Whether it be which glass of wine to drink with a meal, what bottle to buy for the dinner you’re about to cook, or the best wines to serve at a dinner party, we have an article that can help.
There are so many good wines being made around the world, from California and Oregon to New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, Chile, France, Italy, Spain, and believe it or not, even England.
We don’t want to give you technical data that’s better suited for a sommelier, but rather an idea of what wine is available to you, why you might want to try it and which food pairs well with it. We’ll look at understanding the important parts you’ll find on a label, how the shape of a bottle can differ depending on where the wine is made, the grape varieties wines are made from and how they are influenced by the land, or terroir, where they are grown. We’ll also tell you some interesting wine anecdotes and stories you can share with friends along the way!
We hope you find this a helpful resource. Don’t forget we’d love to hear from you if you have an idea for an article you don’t see on our site!