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Our Owners

Alfredo and Alex Bartholomaus

 Alfredo Bartholomaus, founder of Billington Wines and one time hitchhiker (he hitchhiked from his native Chile before running out of money in DC) formed Billington Wines in 1985 right around the same time Havens Wine Cellars produced its first vintage.

Alfredo began by introducing the wines of Chile, which were relatively unavailable to wine lovers in the United States at the time. Starting with Cousino Macul, a Bordeaux style producer, he followed this by importing and distributing the now prestigious wines of Catena from Argentina.

After completing college in 1994, Alfredo’s son, Alex joined the company and quickly added other countries to the mix of imported wines. He assumed the reins of the small family enterprise in 1998. In 2002, Alex and his brother, Erik, a tattoo artist, launched a wine from Chile. The company’s first foray into the production of wine and they named their project Big Tattoo Wines. Erik designed the label and Alex oversaw production. Created in honor of their mother, Liliana S. Bartholomaus, 50 cents from each bottle sold is donated to charity in her name. The project has grown to include an array of wines and surpassed the $1 million mark in 2007.

Later in 2002 the wine collaborations came stateside for the first time with a Sonoma County partnership – Chasseur. This partnership allowed Bill Hunter, the proprietor, to focus on making some of the best small lot Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs in Sonoma County, while Billington focused on properly positioning the wines in some of the most prestigious restaurant and retailers across the country.

In 2006 with plans for more California growth, Alex convinced a small cutting-edge wine negociant, owned by Walt Averill and Máire Murphy, to join the team to focus on growing the California portfolio.  Later that year, Alex began negotiations to purchase Havens Wine Cellars. The passion the Havens wine team of John Killebrew and Mike Rayner have for what they create was clearly evident from day one and the quality and value of the wines were hard to resist.

In this new partnership, the winemaking team continues to do what they have always done in the vineyard and cellar. By adding the expertise of Billington’s distribution and sales, both John and Mike can concentrate on making the quality wines people have come to trust from Havens Wine Cellars. We look forward to many exciting times together as we continue to bring you the best possible wines from Napa and Carneros.