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Health & Fitness

Viva Vino with Tampa Winemaker

Let's talk wine! I've been working in the wine business since becoming a stock boy in '94, and now I fly from my home in Tampa to Spain to make my own wine. So join me on my blog.

Welcome my first blog focusing on all things wine in South Tampa! I hope you will use the information as a learning tool, and gives you a bit of motivation and confidence to step outside the box and try some new and fun wines while visiting cool spots around town that will help expand your world of wine! 

 So why me? Why a blog about wine?  Who am I anyway?

Well, my name is Paul Clear and I am founder and owner of Tampa-based Terroir Wine Cellars. In the simplest of terms, I make wine in Spain, import it to the U.S. and sell it to distributors in about 20 states including Florida. I also import some great wines my friends make.

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The question I always get is, “You look like you’re 22, how did you get into this?”  Well, I was blessed with a baby face, and I am certainly not 22 anymore.  But I have been in the wine business since I was 18. 

Picture it, Buffalo, NY, 1994.  A fresh-faced high school graduate needed a job, and his best friend’s mother happened to work at the top wine shop in town, Premier Liquor.  So I started stocking shelves.  Now you may be thinking, whoopdie doo, stocking shelves at some liquor store is no big deal nor is it hard work. Well, when the store is 80,000 square feet and has more than 10,000 different labels, let me tell you, it wasn’t easy. 

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Well little by little, I started becoming interested in the juice I was stocking and wanted to learn.  I started doing some “research” and realized wine was fun, exciting, interesting and tasted pretty good too.  I moved my way up in the organization, eventually leaving to take jobs with other stores looking to improve their wine programs. 

After eight years of selling some of the most exclusive wines in the world, I eventually decided to make a move to Florida where I landed in Tampa Bay— exactly five years ago this month.

I went to work for a winery as a regional sales rep. with the entire southeast U.S. as a territory.  Well it just so happens that a very famous, or infamous, wine consultant also worked with that winery. Believe me; I learned a thing or two.

When I got tired of working for other people, I took a large leap, personally and professionally.  I spent every dime I had, or didn’t have, and I hopped on a plane to Madrid, rented the smallest car you have ever seen, and drove to wine country.  Three trips and over 125 wineries later, I found a very special place in a town called Albacete and that’s where the story really begins!

So enough about me!  Let’s talk wine!  Some of my plans include wine suggestions and reviews, interviews with the who’s who of the South Tampa wine scene, pairing suggestions, and the fun part— taste offs, where we will invite a select group of media, consumers, blog readers and wine experts to exclusively taste and judge wines.  I’m positive that the results will astound you! I’ll also be scoping out the hottest wine-centric events happening around South Tampa.

I hope you’ll participate by posting comments, questions and suggestions for future articles.  If we suggest a wine, and you try it, leave a comment and let us know what you thought… good or bad!

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