Business Profile

Brian and Cristina

The Marlboro Pike Warehouse. Below: Brands imported by Harbor Wines The Moldova Countryside

From Moldova to Marlboro Pike

It was a pleasure to meet Cristina Tufts and her husband Brian at the Harbor Wines warehouse on Marlboro Pike on a hot afternoon in late August. I was greeted with a very refreshing glass of Italian Prosecco and they proceeded to tell me their story. It is a good one.

Harbor Wines isn’t exactly the typical business that we profile since they are an importer and distributor instead of a retail or service based entity but I was very taken with Cristina’s story after “texting” with her making arrangements to donate some cleaning materials for the warehouse. She and Brian live in the Harbor and I met her virtually through a mutual Facebook page. She is an amazing person.

Cristina is from a small village in the equally small country of Moldova in Eastern Europe. While it is a relatively poor country, it is known for its fertile soil that is perfect for growing grapes. Thus, making wine is a large industry. In fact, Moldovans have been producing wine for literally 50 centuries. That is a longggg time. Cristina grew up drinking wine on a daily basis - a custom of most European countries. It was at a very young age when she grew to appreciate wines and the nuances they all have. You could say it was “in her blood”. She is a very well educated young woman with two Masters Degrees and she speaks 5 languages fluently. Her initial career path was in linguistics and she was headed for a job with the Federal government when it was discovered she couldn’t pass the top security clearance requirements because she had daily contact with a “foreign national”… her mother lived with them. Even though they both had been through the rigors of immigrating from Moldova to the USA and jumped through all of the hoops, her mother was considered a threat. “In retrospect,” she tells me, “it was probably meant to be as it was a catalyst to changing my career path.”

Her husband and “partner in wine”, Brian, is a Lt. Colonel stationed at Fort Belvoir and is the one responsible for getting Cristina to make the a career out of importing and marketing the wines of Moldova. They told me a fun story that they refer to as “the popcorn story”. On one of Brian’s visits to Moldova to see Cristina, he took her on a date that ended up in noshing on popcorn and wine! See, I told you they like their wine in Moldova. Anyway, the bottle of wine that Cristina opened was a 1989 vintage. Brian, even though he didn’t consider himself as a wine connoisseur, thought it unusual to open such an old vintage thinking that since it was well aged, it would be expensive. Cristina looked

Christina Tufts

cause you to remove one or both hands from the steering wheel;

Cognitive distractions, which take your mind off the task of driving and increase the amount of time required to respond to changes in traffic condition surrounding your vehicle.

Taking selfies with your cell phone and posting them to social media involves all three forms of distraction. A 2015 study by Liberty Mutual Insurance and Students Against Destructive Decisions found that two popular photo and video sharing sites —Snapchat and Instagram — headed the list of apps that most distract teen drivers. An Instagram search revealed an alarming number of posts related to the following hashtags: • #drivingselfies: over 6,500 posts • #drivingtowork: over 20,000 posts • #drivinghome: over 96,000 posts

The single, one-word hashtag #driving reveals a shocking 4.4 million posts from people who endangered themselves, their passengers, and others on the road by taking selfies while driving. When it comes to distracted driving, you are either part of the solution or you are part of the problem. According to the www.Distraction.gov website, taking your attention away from the road for even five seconds can equal the entire length of a football field when traveling in a car going 55 miles per hour. Help prevent injuries and save lives caused by distracted driving by doing the following:

Share information concerning the dangers of Smartphone use, texting, and taking selfies behind the wheel with your family and friends;

Educate yourself on other types of distracted driving behaviors, such as checking email, setting GPS systems, switching radio stations, and eating or drinking while driving;

Take the pledge at Distraction.gov to drive safely yourself and to speak out when you are a passenger in a vehicle in which a driver is engaging in distracted driving.

Follow these tips and don’t let that last post be…your last!

BUSINESS PROFILE | FROM PG 4

at him and just laughed and asked “what’s the big deal?” It turns out that the local currency exchange rate to US dollars was about $2.89. The wine was very good and Brian saw some merit in what it could be marked up to and sold on U.S. soil. The plan was soon set in motion.

After getting through all of the red tape required to import from a foreign country and opening a business in Maryland, Harbor Wines was operational in 2016. After finding the perfect sized warehouse on Marlboro Pike, the business was fully operational in 2019. They were on a roll when the pandemic hit but she has managed to maintain her clients and is looking forward to expanding the list.

Harbor Wines is classified as a “boutique” distributor and that lends to having unique product. While she concentrates on the wines of Moldova, she also handles vintages from several boutique wineries throughout Europe, Africa and New Zealand as well as here in the USA. I asked who her clientele was and was pleasantly surprised to hear that the MGM Grand in National Harbor is her main client. She also supplies wines to other outlets in Maryland and DC and is looking to tap into the Commonwealth soon.

Cristina is a one-woman show in every sense of the phrase. She is the CEO, CFO, COO, VP of Marketing and Distribution and head forklift driver. Brian told me that, “She came to the US with two suitcases and 13 years later she has a closet full of shoes!” With great pride and a beautiful smile she says, “I am living the American dream!”

Top: Moldova Right: Moldovian Stamp

If you are in the market for an importer/distributor in the area and want to work with this wonderful company, log on to harborwines.com. I am pretty sure you won’t be disappointed.

As they say in Moldova...

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