Newsletter
A Celebration Fit for an 18L
Above: Scott and friends celebrating with an 18L of Silver Oak at Capital Grille, Lombard, Illinois.
Scott Fuesz, an Illinois native and owner of Prime Industries, was introduced to Silver Oak about fifteen years ago. It was love at first sip. Though he’s not a collector of wine, Scott would drink Silver Oak whenever he could, and soon began serving the wine at gatherings and celebrations. When he completed the acquisition of Prime Industries, the laboratory furniture dealer where he’d been employed for many years, he opened a Silver Oak six-liter, sharing it with friends and clients. As the company grew, he continued to buy large format bottles of Silver Oak to celebrate successive milestones.
A record sales month last year resulted in a twelve-liter, with clients coming in from four different states to help toast the achievement. Each time a bottle was opened Scott would write the date on the back, have his friends and clients sign it, and make a note of the milestone achieved.
Scott was on the Silver Oak website one day and happened to notice that the winery produced a limited number of eighteen-liter bottles (the equivalent of 24 bottles). He had to have one, not necessarily to celebrate a milestone, but “just because.” On October 1st, 2009 Scott, his business partner and several close friends and clients opened the bottle - a 1988 Silver Oak Bonny’s Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. It took five hours to drink it, noted by the timeline they drew on the bottle. The verdict? “It was the best bottle of wine I’ve ever had in my life,” said Scott. Today the eighteen-liter, along with all the other Silver Oak bottles Scott has opened over the years, sits prominently in his office - bringing fond memories of business goals achieved, lasting friendships and of course, great wine.
