The Team

with a few clicks through these pages you’ll see our story: small family farms, natural wines, evocative flavors, memorable personalities and us, We are doing this because it is fun. We don’t have an outsized view of our role in the universe. We didn’t make these wines, and in spite of our fervent attachment to them we remain aware that our role is to provide a bridge for information (and a boat for wine) from small farms in Europe to you. Let us know how we can be useful, increase understanding and enjoyment. Your ideas make our lives better: a big part of the fun of being Piedmont Wine Imports is discussion with interested parties looking to buy and sell and enjoy cool wine. Keep in touch and thanks!

Jay Murrie (he/him)

I started Piedmont Wine Imports in 2012, to bring small farm organic European wines to America. After 13 fun-filled years in independent wine shops, I wanted to get out into the countryside, to find wine that would slightly increase the quality of what was available in America.

There are still finds! As years have passed we’ve traveled more miles than I maybe anticipated at the beginning of this dream job. Maybe I just don’t like a crowd. Leaving the trade shows and finding the one-lane gravel roads up to some isolated hillside farm, remote enough to hear nature surround you from the moment you turn off the car, this became my day at the office. It feels right. To meet grandparents and parents and pets, to see livestock and compost and tentative steps toward future plans, this approach brings us a better understanding of what we are selling to our customers. We become partners in the lives and dreams of the farmers we represent. As their spokespeople in America, this small slice of understanding makes it easier to do our real jobs, to be their advocate. It also builds friendships: we don’t work with jerks! Or generally speaking, middlemen. We prefer farmers, characters, funny, hardworking, inquisitive, real humans.

It’s all very personal at this stage. When it comes to the wines we import, it’s my goal to make zero compromises. Piedmont Wine Imports can skip mediocrity and collect wines we’d share with our friends and family, made by farmers who we’d invite to dinner.

I love how Piedmont Wine Imports changes. Every year our mission statement moves a little. It feels like glacial change. Scrutinizing, tasting, looking at the horizon and discerning where we best fit on the wine map: today we have a small team of smart wine professionals tinkering with what Piedmont Wine Imports is. It brings me optimism, also makes me feel a sense of urgency. I have to be sharper, more aware of our terrain to remain a relevant part of what we do. The people I work with give me freedom, they keep it from feeling like work.

Mandy Genovese (she/her)

Mandy is the administrative center of our universe, the hub for our communication, the coordinator and overseer of our warehouse activities, the meticulous eyes on all our invoices and outgoing vans and drivers. She’s also a food professional with years of customer service experience and a calm, even-keel demeanor that makes her presence on our team essential and delightful. She is from Wisconsin. She likes baking, hanging out with a book in the sunshine, and going on walks in the wilderness of Orange County.

Kim Furcron (she/her)

I am from Florida. For better or for worse, this makes up a lot of my personality. I attended Florida State University for my BSW and MSW (go noles).

My love for seafood is a regular topic of work conversation. I like it all. Salt water fish, fresh water fish, tinned fish, fried fish, grilled fish, raw fish, one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish, I’ll happily eat it.

I nearly exclusively drink nebbiolo, riesling, and Champagne, hence my excitement to work for PWI. I like what I like.

I foster rescue dogs. I really love beagles, especially my beagle, Macchiato. She is my firstborn daughter that I carried for 9 months. Some real white lady shit, but it does take up a lot of my time.

I love birding, hiking, boating, and really anything that involves being outside. I heard someone say once they’re “solar powered,” and I can relate.

My professional wine career got started at Angus Barn when I was a burnt-out social worker in 2020. Never looked back. Most of my experience is in wine retail. I have a love for good food and good wine, enjoyed with good company. I’m big on enjoying life and finding reasons to celebrate and create special occasions. I believe wine is meant to be consumed, not just collected and admired (though I do have my own small collection, it will all get drunk!) And life is meant to be enjoyed. Open your best bottle on your worst day, because you’ll never find the perfect time to open it, and at least then you had a bad day with an amazing bottle of wine at the end. It’s cheesy, but that’s my wine philosophy.

rachel qualliotine

Rachel is your favorite neighborhood clown collector and Kundalini yogi. One conversation with Rachel and you are sure to fall in love with her unique charisma. If you’re lucky, you may suddenly experience a hilarious impression she does of one of her Southern family members or random stranger encounters. Rachel has spent the last decade living in NYC, Denver, and Chicago, working in the food and wine industry. Her devotion to delicious cuisine and exquisite wine is apparent through her excitement and scholarly rhetoric. You will not be disappointed with any recommendation that Rachel offers you! When she’s not working you can find her with her beloved cat, Helmut, a four-legged Northern Saw-Whet owl.

Hannah Smith (she/her)

Hannah is a Durham native who returned to the area after 10 years of working in DC and New York restaurants. Her love of food, teams, and community drew her to the profession. Her appreciation of wine grew while working out of state and most recently while managing (now closed) Littler - working with Anna from PWI along with other area wine pros. Hannah enjoys making pottery, cooking, watching Survivor, arranging flowers, and walking with friends and their dogs.