EVERY DAY IS DIFFERENT — Weirton native Tom Sessi worked for the big wineries for 19 years before becoming his own boss, launching Sessi Wine Co. in Janaury 2000. He makes wine in California and Italy. Sessi stands in front of some barrels in the winery in Napa. -- Contributed

SAN ANTONIO — Weirton native Tom Sessi finds nothing to “whine” about during any given work day.

Instead, the owner of Sessi Wine Co. who launched his own negociant and wine brokerage almost 10 years ago takes delight in the fact that no two days on the job are the same.

And that there’s always time to help people discern what wine they’ll most enjoy or what’s an appropriate gift, for example, to give a holiday hostess.

“The thing that I like most of all is that every day is different,” said the San Antonio resident who envisioned starting his own business in the wine industry after having spent 17 years working for the two largest wine companies in the world in various capacities across 16 states. He also spent two years working for a large importer.

“I don’t think I have ever had two days that have ever been the same,” Sessi said. “I have never looked at my watch and said, ‘Rats! It’s only 3 p.m.’ I’ve never been bored. Even early on in my career when we were stocking shelves, it was never boring,” he said.

“These days the most fun I have is blending wines with our winemakers and bottling days. That is definitely the sexiest part of the business. That’s what people think I do all day,” he said, “I really like dealing with people. I like working with my distributor partners, my retail partners and the consumers. I spend a lot of time in stores helping consumers find wines that they may enjoy or doing tastings. I like the creative side of the business, too,” he added.

That includes details such as working with label designers and developing a marketing plan.

“Unfortunately,” he muses, “I also have to deal with bankers, accountants and attorneys.”

The wine industry may seem like a far cry from his early-on career dream, but then again, maybe not.

“When I was a kid, I really wanted to be a chef,” said Sessi, the son of Tom and Darlene Sessi, both Weirton natives. “My three siblings and I were all born in Weirton. When I was 8, we moved to Paris, Pa., but my father still worked in Weirton, and we all still attended school in Weirton. We graduated from St. Paul’s and Madonna High School,” he said.

Sessi appreciated his mother’s culinary craftiness.

“My mother was always doing something amazing in the kitchen, and I liked to experiment with flavors and ingredients to see what I could come up with,” he said.

“My wife still talks about the first time I made her dinner when we started dating, and I still enjoy spending time in the kitchen,” said Sessi, who resides with his wife of 15 years, Cynthia, originally from El Paso, Texas. They have two children — Giuseppe, 14, and Isabella, who turns 10 on Christmas Day.

The switch from food to wine constituted a natural transition, according to Sessi, “since the aromas, flavors and food pairings are so important yet practical.”

His entry into the world of wine — aside from his first taste of it as a 20-year-old at his parents’ 25th wedding anniversary — came his senior year at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., after he’d “casually tossed” his resume into the box of the world’s largest winery. He graduated with a degree in finance with a concentration in business economics.

“They called me one evening as I was heading out to the library to study and said they were having an information session and wanted me to attend,” Sessi explained.

He was told that they’d interviewed 10,000 people the year before for 10 positions.

“I said to myself that I wanted to be one out of 1,000,” he recalled thinking.

Sessi said he would spend close to 10 years “working in the system for that winery, having many different sales, marketing and management positions.” New opportunities and new positions came with every move, from Chicago and Champaign, Ill., to Dallas and Houston and to Columbia, S.C.

“I eventually left and went to the second largest winery in the world,” he said. “They offered me the opportunity to get back to Texas either in Dallas or San Antonio. I chose San Antonio, because I had already lived in Dallas, and I loved the people in San Antonio every time I visited there for work,” he continued with his story.

“An industry professional chastised me, saying that I chose a ‘B’ market rather than the ‘A’ market for Dallas,” Sessi said. “He said it was a bad career move, but it was a great ‘life’ move …. and it really turned out to be a good career move after all,” he said. “After seven years and three different work assignments, I left that company to work for a large wine importer. I worked for that importer for two years. So now after living in five different cities over 10 years, at this point I was in San Antonio for nine years,” he added.

The last couple of years working for the big wineries, Sessi explained that he advised brand managers who were responsible for bringing the wine to market.

“The largest and most important retailer in the entire Southwest, H-E-B, was looking for wines that were not sold on every corner — the great wines that tasted better than the price indicated, cool and contemporary packaging and something they could make money on,” he said. “Most large wineries could only offer one or two of the three. When I was able to convince the company to invest in these types of brands, it really took our entire portfolio to another level. Unfortunately, the corporate bigwigs didn’t want to see the entire picture, and they only wanted to look at the new brands. They decided it wasn’t worth the effort,” he said.

“I saw that the future was going to rely on profitable items for the retailer that also were great values for the consumer and said to myself that I could do this better than the big companies without all of the red tape,” he said.

“I am grateful to the companies I worked for over those 19 years, but on Jan. 28, 2000, I left corporate America and started Sessi Wine Co. shortly thereafter,” Sessi said. “We are doing about $5 million in sales annually. We have winemakers, brokers and distributors. Most of our business is in Texas and New York, but we sell retail in a total of seven states plus online in 35 states and D.C. My wife keeps the books and helps with tastings and with keeping me in line,” he added.

How competitive a market is the wine business? How do you make a name for yourself or stand out?

Sessi offered this response. “I worked for the big boys. I know what they do. They are greedy — they want all the business and don’t care who lives or dies. It’s very cut-throat. In order to deliver high-quality wines at affordable prices, we have to be efficient and generous. We are doing some things better today than we did eight years ago. We are bottling larger runs than we used to in order to gain economies of scale. We are making better wine, too. We also don’t make as much profit as the big corporate wineries. That’s how we can compete with them, but I don’t need to pay hundreds of sales people or stockholders so I don’t need to make as much money.”

“I make wine in California and Italy,” Sessi continued. “I currently make five wine brands. Stivali, which means “boots” in Italian because Italy is shaped like a boot. We make Prosecco, Pinot Grigio, Sangiovese, Sweet Rosso and Sweet Bianco. Mia Bella, which means ‘My Bella or My Beautiful’ in Italian and named after my daughter, Isabella, because the wine is sweet and bubbly just like her. Unwined is my mid-tier California offering, and we make Chardonnay, Cabernet, Sauvignon and Pinot Noir. The Red Room is an easy-to-drink red blend. Sessi is my eponymous label making Napa Valley Cabernet and Chardonnay, Red Hills Cabernet, California Red Blend and Syrah,” he said.

“The thing that I am most proud of is making great wines for affordable prices. The Sessi Napa Cab has a suggested retail price of $46, but many people suggest it should be $90 to $100,” he said. “Most of the other wines are affordable to drink on a regular basis for many people with SRPs in the $10-to-$20 range,” he noted.

“We’ve got some more brands in the works. I’m interested in doing some French wine which I hope will happen this year and some South American wine at some point.”

Locally, Shop ‘n Save and Granato’s Deli in Weirton carry some of Sessi’s wines. Uncle Peps in Follansbee and Kroger Mount Dechantal in Wheeling sell some of his products as well.

Asked how he advises people on what wines to buy, Sessi responded, “I really love helping people find wines that they will like. Some people may think that they don’t like wine, but it’s because they are not trying the types of wines that they like,” he explained. “I always ask people what they are looking for. Are they looking for red or white? Dry or sweet? How much body do they like? How much tannin do they like? Are they looking for something that goes with a particular meal? Are they having it on the back patio in the middle of summer? These are all factors in determining which wine I would help to select for somebody,” he said.

At his parents’ 25th wedding anniversary dinner celebration at LeMont Restaurant atop Mount Washington, Sessi remembers his dad asked if he’d like to taste the wine.

“I responded by saying that I really didn’t like wine. He convinced me to try it, and for the first time in my life, I really liked a wine,” he said.

“When I got into the wine business working for a large winery, they taught us more about selling wine and merchandising wine in order to garner more sales. It was only after understanding the blocking and tackling that they taught us about wine,” Sessi said.

“Over the years I have discovered that learning about wine is like learning to play golf. If you want to do either well, it’s going to take a lot of time and a lot of money. If you want to do well, it takes a lot of practice and patience. If you stick around the wine business long enough, you will have a lot of opportunities to taste many different wines and learn something about many different wines and wine regions,” he said.

“The most valuable wine tasting sessions for me when I was learning about wine were when I would learn to ascertain what subtlety or nuance was in the wine. For example, why did people perceive aromas of cocoa in wine when all I smelled was wine? What was the difference between cherry, red cherry and black cherry in the nuance? The other wine classes where I really learned a lot about the intricacies in wine were when we tasted wine with food and could determine what wine went best with what food,” Sessi said.

“There were two different ways to try this. The first was to taste the same wine with five different food dishes. You could see how the wine tasted different with each different course. The second was to try five different wines with the same food. You could examine the wine and what nuance was in that wine that made it go better with that specific food than the other wines,” he said.

“These were great ways to better understand how food and wine goes together. It’s also something fun to do with friends at home or at a restaurant.”

(Kiaski can be contacted at jkiaski@heraldstaronline.com.)