10 BEVERAGE JOURNAL February 2013

BRANDPROFILE

Gaithersburg-based Interbalt Products

Corp. just celebrated its 10th year in business. So how did company President Konstantin Kh-izder and his staff celebrate? “My team and I, we went out on a boat and caught a big fish!” he exclaimed, during a recent interview with the Beverage Journal.

For its part, Interbalt continues to emerge as a big fish in the Maryland-

Virginia-D.C. beverage market. The company specializes in importing and distributing spirits, wine, and beer from around the globe, serving the region’s packaged-goods stores, bars, restaurants, nightclubs, and many of the Washington-based em-bassies. Among its most popular of-ferings lately have been the Santero Moscatos.

The best known is the Santero Moscato Rose, a refreshing spar-kling wine that has a nice strawber-ry/raspberry sweetness to it. The flavor is velvety and intense. It’s for those who like a sweet wine, but don't want anything heavy or syrupy. Khizder notes that it pairs especially

well with chocolate. Consumers are finding it to be a great gift, too, as the bottle has an antique appeal to it. “It makes a great vase after the wine has been consumed!" he ex-claimed.

Khizder and his staff are most ex-cited about the line of Santero Fla-vored Moscatos that continues to emerge. Santero Moscato Coconut is among the most popular. It’s a sparkling sweet white wine pro-duced from the best white moscato grape variety. Khizder calls it “deli-ciously refreshing.” Santero Mosca-to Peach, meanwhile, boasts an intense and delicate bouquet that goes very well with desserts. A third

SANTERO MOSCATO Has a Flavor for Every Taste

BY TED DURGIN

Konstantin Khizder and his staff celebrating their 10 years in business. Here are Andrey Golumbovskiy, Darina Antonova, Anna Fedorova, Grigore Rudnitski, Konstanti Khizder, David

Davtian, Rubina Davtyan, Ivan Makeev, Valeria Rogacheva, and Anastassia Ivanova.

SANTERO FLAVORED MOSCATO WINESPEACH PINEAPPLE PASSIONFRUIT STRAWBERRY COCONUT

DISTRIBUTED BY INTERBALT: (855)SANTERO OR (301)793.1818

choice -- Santero Moscato Pineapple -- has both an intense and delicate bouquet for an after-dinner drink. Finally, Santero Moscato Strawberry goes especially well with pastries.“Santero Moscato Passion Fruit

is also now in the mix,” Khizder stated. “And we are waiting this year a sixth addition to the Moscato flavored line. It will be Mango. . . .

“Santero Moscato is not hard liquor. They are each less than 10 percent alcohol, very easy to drink.”

In terms of the brand’s other of-ferings, Santero Moscato D’Asti has been roundly hailed as a sweet and full-flavored white sparkling wine that goes well with fruits. Santero Moscato Spumante, meanwhile, rounds out the list. “We are selling

a lot of Santero Moscato in Mary-land and Virginia,” Khizder de-clared. “A lot of nightclubs in the D.C. area carry our products. They like the crystal bottle. It’s very at-tractive on the shelf. Almost every store in D.C. now has our products. I think every store in P.G. County has our products. We cover almost all of Maryland, from Baltimore County to Ocean City to P.G.”

He continued, “Santero Moscato is for people who like to celebrate, who like to have a good time. We are expecting for 2013 more sales than last year and this past year. In

Maryland this last year, a huge num-ber of people turned 21 years of age and came on the drinking market. They enjoy discovering something new, and they have really helped make Santero successful in the spar-kling Moscato section here in Mary-land.”

Passion and quality have been the guidelines that have distinguished the long history of the Santero winery, which was established in 1958 and eventually consolidated by the Santero brothers. The range of Santero wines has enabled the brand to interpret new consumer

trends as they have come along, hence the emphasis on the flavored Moscatos lately. And, yes, the unique design of the Santero bottles -- carved and wing-relief -- has given them a certain eye-catching quality that has enabled them to stand out on the shelf.

As an importer, Interbalt now has distributors in 18 states. The suc-cess of the company this past decade lies in its proven ability to supply quality products for diverse market segments. Khizder concluded, “I love hearing about people enjoying our products. We are focusing more and more on the main market. We are pleased to be distributing wines now from Chile, from Argentina, from Italy. Italy is a country that can produce, with quality, sparkling wine from the Moscato grape, and we are glad to be a part of bringing that wine to people’s tables.”�Q

“SANTERO MOSCATO IS FOR

PEOPLE WHO LIKE TO CELEBRATE, WHO LIKE TO HAVE A GOOD

TIME."

EDWARD "TEDDY" DURGIN is a graduate of UMBC. In additional to his freelance journalist duties, he is an entertainment reviewer. You may contact Teddy at tedfi lm@comcast.net.

“SANTERO MOSCATO IS NOT

HARD LIQUOR. THEY ARE EACH LESS THAN 10

PERCENT ALCOHOL, VERY

EASY TO DRINK."

12 BEVERAGE JOURNAL February 2013

BRANDPROFILE