NIPPON NATURALS
日本ナチュラルズ
Paul Travers
Paul traded his career in financial services for the very different world of natural wine on a whim (anyone that knows him will know this is not “in character”). Influenced by his daughter, Anna’s devotion to natural farming and winemaking, Paul abandoned his affinity for inexpensive, commercially produced wine (red – only of course) and broadened his perspective to trying (and liking) many types of wine.
In his former role as an executive with senior management roles at Merrill Lynch, Prudential, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase and most recently at MetLife there was little time for appreciating the subtle flavors only found in natural wine. The decidedly slower world of working with wine producers and retailers has been an adjustment, but all for the better.
Having lived in Japan and traveled there for work and pleasure for many years, Paul founded Nippon Naturals to bring natural, organic and biodynamic wines to Vermont and the USA.
Nippon Naturals
Nippon Naturals was created with an exclusive focus on bringing natural, organic and biodynamic wines from Japan to the USA. Currently, we distribute with in Vermont – a small state, but very focused on natural, organic and biodynamic food and beverage as well as the impact to our environment.
Japanese wines are incredibly underrepresented in the US market because of the challenges for importers and distributors experience trying to procure, ship and distribute these high quality and small batch wines. Natural, organic and biodynamic wine producers tend to be smaller size vineyards with less yield than conventional wine production operations. Often, the farm is run by a family or a small group of devoted farmers and winemakers versus a corporate entity focused on profits at the expense of the environment.
These smaller farms also have many roles for each individual who works in the vineyard or the cellar. Foreign language skills may be limited and there are legal, regulatory and logistical challenges to get their product from Japan to the USA. Nippon Naturals works directly with these producers to overcome these challenges to make this process easier and to make their product available to eager consumers in the USA.
