About

About: Charlemagne Fine Wines & Karl Curran

Charlemagne is a bespoke wine curation company with a vision of making the process of choosing good wines an easy and effortless, all the while fun experience. Charlemagne hand selects wines from Italy and France by way of getting to know the producers on a first name basis. To know the producers and understand their philosophies on making great wines before importing is paramount as it allows us to present knowledgeable and respected opinions on our chosen subject. I speak both French and Italian and more over being from Ireland I understand European culture. This understanding along with strong communication skills has allowed Charlemagne to penetrate some of these almost impregnable markets, such as Champagne where we have now set up a relationship with two small production families which produce Grand Cru Champagne. Importing good quality is at the forefront of our vision. These are wines that you will not see among the myriad of other labels on your supermarket shelves. We have made a selection process bearing in mind our potential customers. There is a special value in a good bottle of wine that can unleash great conversation around a dinner table with family and friends, a value that can change an average night into a memory. At Charlemagne, we believe that being a good wine retailer and importer is about providing you with a memorable fine wine experience – whether you are interested in receiving regular cases of wine for drinking now, advice on wine to lay down, or wish to attend a tasting and seminar class to improve your education, Charlemagne is there to help.

During my first year out of high school, my true life interest was born. I’d gone on an adventure to the small town of Tain l’Hermitage in France, where I secured a job at Paul Jaboulet Aine, one of the more famed red wine producers in the Rhone Valley. Its bottles grace the pages of the finest wine menus all over the world. I spent one unbelievable year in the cellar at PJA. I played some rugby with the local team and made great friends that would help shape the rest of my life. I learned how to taste wine properly. I made daily excursions to some of the finest producers in the world where I was introduced to the purest fundamentals of the business. I learned from the bottom up. After what ended up being a couple of years in France, I went to London and found work on the market trading floor executing trades in the pits. This led to a twenty-year career in the Foreign Exchange Options brokerage field, working for various firms all over the world from Tokyo to London, Hong Kong and New York. I brokered currency derivative contracts such as futures and options on the Dollar versus the Yen, Euro and emerging markets such as Brazil, Chile and Mexico. Manhattan was my last stop. I finally found a real home in beautiful Pasadena with my wife Jessica, and our two children, lucy and Charles