WE ARE CANDID.

Candid Wines serves retailers and restaurateurs in Chicagoland with thoughtfully farmed and exquisitely made wines from around the world. We are a direct importer and independent distributor focused on value, quality, and customer service. Our team consists of restaurant and industry veterans with a penchant for sharing the joy we find in every bottle we sell.

 

Damien Casten founded Candid Wines in 2005 after six years living in France, where his last two years were spent cooking—his final year at Lucas Carton, a three-Michelin-star restaurant in Paris. As Damien explains: "The most exciting flavors started with the most exciting small farmers and suppliers in France. On weekends I worked the floor at a wine shop whose standards for sourcing wine matched what I saw in the kitchen. The producers' stories captivated me, and their products provided an unmatched taste education."

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That experience—the direct connection between producers and consumers—is what the traditional three-tier model breaks. Candid's model is intentionally built to close that gap.

Since 2005, we've built a global portfolio; family-owned estates farming the same plots their grandparents planted and emerging producers setting the tone for the next generation.

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We work with producers whose farming practices connect wine quality to ecosystem health. Farmers who build soil health through organic, biodynamic, regenerative and a million small, sustainably minded farming techniques consistently produce wines that we find seductive and memorable. We embrace the larger wine world's move to sustainability and are lucky to have been in the middle of these movements for more than 20 years. Still, farmers who build wine quality in the soil remain in the minority in the world at large. We are proud to present a portfolio of some of the world's most talented and sustainable wine growers.

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