At a time when Australian wine is too often dismissed as either overly ripe or overly familiar, Legend Imports has thoughtfully and persuasively built a counter-narrative, one rooted in nuance, region, and producer-first storytelling. Co-founded by Master Sommelier and author Jane Lopes, the company was recently named Importer of the Year – Australia at the 2025 Sommeliers Choice Awards, thanks in part to their work with Mérite Cabernet Sauvignon, which earned recognition as Australia’s Cabernet of the Year.

In this conversation, Jane shares how Legend balances commercial ambition with authenticity, why education remains their most effective marketing tool, and how a single trip to Wrattonbully can change the way buyers see Australian wine. From sustainability commitments and distribution challenges to the quiet force of storytelling, she offers a clear-eyed perspective on what it takes to build and grow an import business that resonates with both trade and consumers.

Image: Winning wines from Legend Imports.

Your portfolio spans both staple varietals (Cabernet, Chardonnay, Pinot) and Mediterranean/Italian grapes. How do you balance sourcing globally familiar wines that satisfy consumers while also championing lesser-known varietals like Nero d’Avola or Vermentino?

We’re not as methodical about this as you might think. We’re attracted to producers first and foremost – producers who we believe in and really think make exceptional wines. We like to have a diverse portfolio, of course, and try to make sure that we don’t have wines that end up being redundant. But it’s about the producer first and foremost.

Legend’s goal has been to add four new U.S. distributors per year with re-orders within six weeks. Can you unpack how that KPI reflects your broader sales strategy, and how distributors, retail chains, and sommeliers respond to your approach? 

This is more of an internal goal than it is one expressed to distributors and other customers. But it feels like a comfortable goal that allows us to grow without growing too fast (or trying to add markets just for the sake of it). The reorder goal means that we’re off to a solid start, and we’ve supported our distributor to successfully launch the wines in the market. This, of course, depends somewhat on what initial POs look like, but distributors don’t want to sit on wine, so if we can help them move it, we’re succeeding for us and for them. 

How do you position Australian wine within U.S. off‑premise and on‑premise accounts? What tactics, such as distributor partnerships, incentives, and educational programs, work best to elevate Australian varietals on wine lists and store shelves?

Big question! And I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all answer. We’ve done all sorts of educational programming, retail and distribution incentives, and participation in various consumer and trade conferences and festivals. I think any and all can be effective if you have good wines and authentic stories backing it up. But probably the thing we see as being the most effective is getting people over to Australia. We ran our first trade trip this year, and it felt like we created 9 life-long ambassadors for Australian wine. We hope to do many more trips like this, both with on- and off-premise buyers, as well as distributors.  

Image: Legend Imports’ trade trip with US buyers to the winery.

Mérite Cabernet Sauvignon (2020) earned Gold, 95 points, and Australia’s Cabernet Sauvignon of the Year. What’s special about this wine, its winemaking, terroir, leaf-to-bottle story, and how it epitomizes both Cabernet and its region? 

Colleen Miller and Mike Kloak are quietly growing and making some of the best Bordeaux varieties in Australia. They’ve been championing an under-the-radar region called Wrattonbully, where they planted in 2000. They’re excellent grape growers first and foremost, but also have a great sense for picking times, oak usage, and aging to craft wines that have amazing fruit concentration but also great savory nuance and balance.  

Image: (Left) Colleen Miller and Mike Kloak, and (Right) Winner of 2025 SCA - Mérite Cabernet Sauvignon 2020.

How will you leverage this accolade at the Sommeliers Choice Awards, especially with the Importer of the Year Australia award, to amplify Mérite’s visibility through marketing, tasting events, shelf-talkers, and list placements?

I think the main benefit of the Sommeliers Choice Awards is getting our wines in front of top-notch wine professionals from around the country.

Legend is now a Certified B‑Corporation with publicly available accountability reports. How does that B‑Corp framework influence the wines you import, and what sustainability or labor practices do you insist on within your supply chain?

We try not to insist on certain practices – an inclusive industry and supply chain that brings everyone along toward better practices has always been our philosophy. We’ve always naturally been attracted to producers who care about the planet and their people, and we profile those practices in detail on our website. We are by no means experts on the best environmental and social practices; we just try to learn as much as we can, and be a bit better every day. 

Your background as a Master Sommelier and co-author of How to Drink Australian gives Legend a strong educational platform. How do you intertwine education—via tastings, books, regional guides—with your sales and marketing efforts?

Education has always been key for us, from day one. We think about education first and foremost, and that is the pathway to sales and marketing. We believe that if the trade is excited to learn about the intricacies of Australian wine (and has the resources to do it), it will allow them to more easily support the category.

Image: (Left) The book “How to Drink Australian” written by Jane Lopes & Jonathan Ross, and (Right) Legend Import's Wine Club.

You’ve pointed out the misconception that most exported Australian wine is “sunshine-in-a-glass.” How do you use cultural narratives, storytelling, and tasting notes to shift that perception among U.S. buyers and consumers? 

“Sunshine in a glass” was an Australian marketing campaign of yesteryear in the UK. There’s actually an educational spin there – talking about the unique flavor profile that a high UV climate can create – but that wasn’t how it was employed. It was employed to make Australian wine seem easy and simple, and while I understand the impulse, we have taken the opposite approach – diving into the complexities of Australian wine to showcase how detailed the terroir, history, and winemaking of the country are.

What role do restaurants—bespoke wine bars, premium chains, tasting rooms—and retail chains play in your distribution mix, and where have you seen the greatest traction for your key wines like Mérite?

We generally sell to independent restaurants and retailers. We have not done much work with larger chains – most of our wines don’t have the production volume to fill those placements, and often those buying decisions are based on things other than just quality and value. 

Image: (Left) Wines from Legend Australian Wine Imports on display at a Heinen’s grocery store, Cleveland. (Right) Wine tasting at LouElla Wine Beer & Beverage, NC.

You’ve shared COVID-era freight lessons (“never run out of wine”). How do you manage import logistics, warehousing, and stock replenishment so that your wines stay reliably available to U.S. partners? 

It’s not a perfect science. But now that we have a few years under our belts, it is easier to project (based on sales data and our experience) the amount of wine that we will need. Then it’s just a matter of working far enough in advance to make sure that we keep wine in stock. It takes almost six months from issuing a PO to the wines getting to our distributors, so we just need to stay ahead of it!

Does Legend offer marketing support—such as promotional funds, media submissions, or buyer trips—for wineries? How do you collaborate with producers to help them invest in and grow in the U.S. market?

We encourage our wineries to invest in the US market in ways that make sense for them – whether that’s supporting trade trips we make to Australia, having them visit the market themselves, participating in incentives or conferences, etc. We try to balance our investment with our producers – it should never be one-sided. It takes both parties investing time and energy to make successful strides in the US market.  

Conclusion

Legend Imports’ momentum is grounded in deliberate choices: partnerships built on shared values, wines that speak with regional clarity, and a sales strategy guided more by connection than convention. While the 2025 Sommeliers Choice Awards mark a major milestone, Jane Lopes and her team remain focused on the broader impact, changing the narrative around Australian wine and deepening its presence in the U.S. market. It’s not just a recognition of what Legend has achieved, but of what it continues to cultivate.

In conversation with Malvika Patel, Editor and VP, Beverage Trade Network

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