If you live in Cole Valley and enjoy having a glass of wine when you dine out in the neighborhood, it's likely that you’ve sampled a wine imported by a neighbor: Gregory Condes. An acclaimed sommelier with a world-class resume, Condes counts Say Cheese, Reverie, InoVino, Zazie, Bambino’s Ristorante, and Alembic among the neighborhood restaurants and bars that carry his wines; they're also stocked at restaurants and bars around the city and state.
Although most of the work for his company, Gregory Condes Wines, happens behind the scenes, Condes can often be spied scooting around Cole Valley on his Vespa or stopping into Reverie for lunch. He works with his wife and business partner, Ellen Grantz, out of their home near Kezar Stadium, which they share with their two young sons.
There, above his desk, he keeps a map of the city pushpinned with the locations of his clients. The cluster in Cole Valley represents just a small percentage of the spots he serves around the city and the state, but "having the trust of the people you see every day is important to me,” he said.
A lineup of Condes' wines at a tasting in Los Angeles. (Photo: Gregory Condes Wines/Facebook)
Condes was born in the hospital at UCSF-Parnassus and grew up in the Bay Area. He got an early start in the service industry, playing guitar at his family’s small Mexican and Salvadoran restaurants and helping customers in his mother’s dress shop. During college, he worked as a food runner at the Palo Alto location of Wolfgang Puck's Spago, eventually rising to captain. It didn’t take long for him to realize that becoming a skilled wine salesman made a difference in the size of his tickets—and his tips.
Condes started his education in wine before he could legally drink, poring over Kevin Zraly's Windows on the World Complete Wine Course. Wine intersected with many subjects he cared about, but what he really fell for was each wine's story. "I found I had the ability to sell these stories on the restaurant floor,” he says.
After college, Condes went to work at K&L Wine Merchants, where he specialized in Bordeaux and Rhone wines, as well as port. The experience opened doors, eventually landing him a job as the sommelier at Gary Danko. “At Gary Danko, they called Gregory the Golden Goose, because he could sell more wine in a night than anyone else," says Grantz.
From there, Condes was invited to move to Las Vegas to work at the now-closed Alex. At the time, it was the centerpiece restaurant of the $2.7 billion Wynn hotel and the only AAA Five Diamond restaurant in the world to be located in a casino. With two Michelin stars, a staircase modeled after that of Tara in Gone with the Wind, and checks averaging $400 per person, it was a very high-end spot—and Condes, only 26 at the time, was entrusted with building its wine cellar.
He didn't flinch. No matter the venue or the price tag, "it’s about making people comfortable,” Condes said, “and pivoting a moment into a positive experience.”
Condes in his sommelier days. (Photo: Gregory Condes Wines/Facebook)
From there, Condes moved on to Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants in London and New York before returning to the Bay Area. In 2008, he and Grantz started a family, and Condes decided it was time to leave the restaurant world and its unpredictable hours behind. He took a new job as a sales manager at Emeryville-based Vinity, which specializes in family-owned, artisan wine producers from Italy. After three years building his sales skills at Vinity, he branched out on his own with Gregory Condes Wines.
Wine distribution is a niche business: a top client like Gary Danko might work with as many as 40 distributors, so savvy ones aim to specialize. Gregory Condes Wines focuses on French, Italian and domestic wines, from smaller producers in celebrated regions. Condes says he looks for classic wines that overproduce for their value and are representative of their place.
The company was a solo operation until 2013, when Grantz left her job in finance to help the burgeoning business expand. Although she doesn't drink, she oversees planning and operations, and has a passion for the business side of the company.
While Grantz keeps the business looking three to six months ahead, Condes is often on the road, shopping his wines, hosting tastings and building relationships with clients. The couple enjoys traveling to meet growers, getting to know the story behind each wine at its source.
Grantz and Condes with their sons. (Photo: Gregory Condes/Facebook)
The fruits of Condes and Grantz's labor can be tasted at Bambino’s, where owner Spiro Makras sells one of Condes' wines by the glass: a Pinot Grigio from a region near the Dolomites, famous in Europe for their apple production.
“I don’t always have time to taste everything, but with Gregory, I trust that he is bringing in good inventory,” he said. “As a small businessperson, we want to help other small businesspeople ... By working with small producers, Gregory helps the entire chain.”
Claudio Villani, who owns nearby InoVino, has been close with Condes for 14 years. They met when Condes occasionally took shifts at Incanto in Noe Valley, where Villani was the sommelier. Later, Condes helped Villani land a position with Wynn in Las Vegas, and when Villani tore his Achilles tendon playing basketball just before the job began, Condes drove him all the way there. When Condes' first son, Douglas, was born, he and Grantz chose Villani as his godfather.
Though Condes no longer works on a restaurant floor, Villani still doesn’t think his friend's job is a “behind the scenes” gig. “He is front of the scene!" he says, laughing. "He is the main actor!”
Like Makras, Villani says he values Condes for his approachability when it comes to wine. “People think you have to be sophisticated, but what you really need sometimes is a free spirit."
Condes tasting through wines with a client. (Photo: Gregory Condes/Facebook)
Condes tries to learn about each of his clients' tastes, so he can connect them with wines they'll enjoy. For example, Say Cheese and Cafe Reverie owner Roger Soudah "is like a friend who likes the same music. I know he has an Old World palate, no nonsense.”
Of late, Condes and Grantz have been trying to get even more involved in the community. They recently hosted a tasting fundraiser for Grattan Elementary, which their sons attend; it ended up being the biggest money-maker of the season. “It’s a lot of time, but worth it," Condes explained. “We’re just lucky that our kids are now at the same school and we can do one larger event.”
His clients are also happy to have him nearby. “He’ll stop by while he's out with his son, or walking his dog," says Makras. "We will sit outside, have a glass together and talk about wine."
