Jordan Warners | Kevin McWilliams | Yujin Kim
Damien Casten | Connor O’Rourke | Scott Kerrigan
Jordan Warners, Sales
Jordan Warners demonstrates proper technique when drinking Keller Ausles
Jordan Warners knows fine dining. He excels with Candid as a representative to the best in the city thanks in part to the years he worked at Alinea prior to joining us. He is patient, honest, well educated and speaks clearly about all aspects of wine and service.
Jordan has a particular affinity for dry Rieslings and exceptional Champagne. Ask him to tell you about Klaus Peter Keller’s wine, or the latest arrivals from Champagne Serge Faust and you will be treated to not only the how’s and the why’s of each wine, but also Jordan’s thoughtful and personal experiences with them.
Jordan sells Candid Wines in Chicago and can be reached at [email protected], or at 773.899.4803.
Kevin McWilliams, Sales
Most recently from Portland, Oregon, Kevin is a new arrival in Chicago, but he has a long history with wine and a particular interest in farming practices and obscure varietals.
As a retail salesman in Portland, Kevin tasted the best of the Pacific Northwest alongside imports from many distributors similar to Candid. He developed not only his palette in this role, but also a deep understanding of what “good wine reps” do well and why “bad wine reps” are thrown out on their ear. In a short time he has shown an ability to listen to customers and provide excellent support when needed.
Kevin is focused on the city’s Northside and the north and north-western suburbs. He can be reached at [email protected] and 971.258.8514.
Yujin Kim, Web Developer
Connor, Yujin, and Damien at the 2012 Green City Market Barbecue
Some people dream of winning the lottery. Here at Candid Wines we dream of finding another intern-turned employee who will contribute half as much as Yujin did during the year she worked with us in Chicago.
Diligent, intelligent, and thoughtful in her work, Yujin built this entire website from scratch despite the fact that she had never written a line of code or thought about how widgets and plug-ins work on a page before she started with us.
If you landed on this page because you are thinking about hiring Yujin after she graduates from University in 2013, do not delay. She is fantastic and she will make your company better and stronger than it was before she arrived.
We were introduced to Yujin by Intrax, a program that pairs international students with US based companies for six months to one year. The program carefully matches interns and potential companies, increasing the chances that everyone involved has a positive experience. We sure did.
Damien Casten, Partner
Damien was bitten by the wine bug at Taillevent while living in Paris as a twenty-two year old. At a meal where every bite was fantastic, a 1985 Hermitage paired with venison was out of this world. That was a happy moment.
It took another few years of semi professional eating in France including road trips with a Rugby team to places like Sancerre and Champagne for him to trade corporations for kitchens.
After attending the New England Culinary Institute he returned to Paris and worked in kitchens for two years including the Michelin three starred Lucas Carton, known for its remarkable food and wine pairings. In his spare time he traded labor for wine and knowledge at one of Paris’ best wine shops, cooked with friends and traveled.
Candid Wines was born when he met Scott Kerrigan while working in wine here in Chicagoland. A decade later, Damien is endlessly impressed with just how much there is to do, to eat, and to discover in Chicago and throughout the Midwest. He’s come to believe that if you can’t find a “best in the world” example of just about anything you’d like to put in your belly here in Chicago, you should look again. Damien can be reached at [email protected].
Connor O’Rourke, Partner
Connor O’Rourke knows you how to find his way back to almost anywhere he has ever been, whether he was there on a hike as a teenager or he drove there as an adult. This sense of place is useful everyday at Candid where he manages the logistics of recieving from around the world and delivering it to customers around the Chicago-land area.
On top of that inherent sense of place and direction, Connor was a Geology major so when he visits wineries he always comes back with a deep understanding of where the wine is from, literally, as he sees fault lines and extinct volcanoes. Ask him about his time with the Barra’s in Mendocino, and he will be as capable of providing the best way to access the winery as he is of describing what was happening in the area millions of years ago to create the rolling hills we see today.
Connor oversees all of the logistics that make Candid Wines possible, from ordering and warehouse management, to shipping and delivery. You can reach Connor at [email protected].
Scott Kerrigan, Partner
Scott Kerrigan travelled from Paris to Sancerre to Anjou before Candid could afford an extra seat.
Scott abandoned reason long ago in his pursuit of bacchanalian pleasures. The picture at left evidences this fact nicely as he accepted to ride on a chair, in a van, in order to experience the “Salon des Vins” in the Loire Valley one year. No one was hurt.
Vacations in Italy, life in California, and business trips to anywhere near a vineyard have all meant one thing to Scott: a chance to seek out new food and wines.
Law school was interesting and he enjoyed his MBA, but something was missing. Frustrated by his lack of experience in the kitchen, gourmet night school in Chicago seemed the only reasonable option.
Enriched by his experience at the Culinary and Hospitality Institute in Chicago and nearly fifteen years of wine collecting and obsession, he can finally stop pretending to be anything other than the food and wine junkie he truly is.
Scott is Candid Wines’ CFO and decides when we will buy Euros to pay for the next round of bubbles from Champagne Pierre Moncuit, handles taxes, and generally he guides our growth. You can reach Scott at [email protected].
