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News 12 Staff

713spotlightnj2newfixed11_2024-07-13-11-48-25

Roa Cassem is my guest today. She's here talking about her wine company that is based in Middlesex County. She is the president and CEO of three Js imports. Tell me about the products you have here. We already discussed these two bottles in the first segment. Tell me about these three pictured here. Great. So these all represent my wine portfolio and we have accumulated these wines or adapted them into our portfolio over the years since my incorporation. These in particular come from very small producers Hursley in Napa, California and Ari is in Sonoma and both produce very small quantities about 500 cases or so. These in here come from um international markets. So this is from Alga on wine estates in San Rafael Mendoza. Mendoza is the Prima primary wine region of Argentina and this here is our private label which just arrived from Italy. So we're very proud to have that one as a new addition to our portfolio. You have a good background for this because you grew up in the restaurant industry. I sure did. I was very fortunate to have a family that exposed me to good wine and good food at a very young age. I, my memories in the restaurant business go back to when my uncle and my dad would sit us down around a table and I would hear the s, and the, ah, coming from people as he opened up a good bottle of wine and I didn't understand the significance of it when I was younger until I, I grew up and started to learn about wine. Um, and obviously open my own business. You said people need to be educated about wine and labels that is important. That is absolutely correct. Um There's so much wine out there to choose from. And unfortunately, we are still lacking in the education as to uh inform the consumer about what he or she is buying. So the labels tell a lot about the wine in particular. If you look at this one, we can tell that the vintage is 2019 and the varietal is a pinot noir. It comes from Russian River Valley, which is in California, but then in particular has the name of the vineyard where the grapes are sourced. So when you see the name of a particular vineyard, it means the grapes are only sourced from that one vineyard, making them a very high quality grapes, it sounds like it tastes good. It really does. In 2020 you were licensed here in New Jersey as a distributor importer. Correct? Tell me about that, right. So I knew I really wanted to represent smaller wineries and give them the opportunity to showcase their beautiful wines. Um I took that step further and then went ahead and got certified to become more of a wine specialist. And so I enrolled in the W set program, the Wine school and Education Trust, which is affiliated with a London School and in Napa as well. I took my level two past that and then I studied really hard and recently last June passed my level three. Congratulations. Thank you. Looking at that right now on the screen. Yes, that is a big deal because because it just gives me more knowledge to help my consumers to help my customers better understand the wine market and the products and the quality of the wines and where they come from, from different regions of the world.

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713spotlightnj3_2024-07-13-12-33-12

We are talking with Rania Kassem here today. She is president and CEO of three Js imports. You see her there in the pictures that we are rolling right now, Rania, go ahead and tell me what we're looking at right there. Is me doing a wine tasting at Forest Gate Country Club in Monroe, New Jersey. There is one of the owners of the winery with me and we paired the wines with a beautiful dinner. And so what we've been doing is going around the state doing this with a lot of different country clubs and restaurants. Um It has been a wonderful experience for our customers, for everyone. Really? What was your first experience with a wine tasting? Like? It was interesting. I didn't know what to expect. I just said, you know, I'm gonna go and see what, what I the feedback from the customers, which was incredible because um there's just so much to share about wine. Every wine bottle has a story and I wanna share my story and you know, the Christopher Creek Wine right here that has my name on it when I tell people what I did and how it has my name. They are just so enlightened by the whole story. They taste the wine, they love the wine and we get a purchase and the customer goes home happy too. Um, one of my first tastings was during the holidays and we sold quite a bit of that wine about 50 bottles in three hours, three hours in three hours. That's correct. You must been so shocked and proud of yourself. I sure was. I was, it was amazing. It was really a blessing. It was great on your website. You are developing a ratings system. That's correct. Explain what that's about. Yes. So I've developed this rating system to be based more on the female palate. So in my, along my journey and my research, I have found studies that show that women of child bearing age tend to have a more sophisticated palate for wine. So what does that mean? They can pick up on different scents, aromas and tastes more than their male counterparts? I didn't know that. Yes, it was quite, very interesting and I kind of put my husband to the challenge. Sometimes we try to challenge ourselves. But um yes. So it's called the Rania rating system. It's still in the very initial parts of its development, but that's exactly what it's gonna do. It's gonna help people understand the wines that I'm rating and uh educate them a little bit more based on my female palate. I love that based on her female palate. How does your family get involved? My family, my immediate family. Um Yes. So my husband on his spare time helps me deliver the wine to my customers. He also helps me uh balance my checkbook. He's kind of my chief financial officer. Um, but he really has taken a step back and allowed me to be the shining light and the uh front person in front of the whole business. He really wants me to take ownership and I'm so grateful for that because he's been a huge, huge support.

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714spotlioghtnj4_2024-07-14-12-09-12

Romia Cassem is the president and CEO of three Js imports based here in Middlesex County. The other thing that you are too is a vet. That's correct. Explain. A Vintner is a wine grower grape grower. So back in 2016, before I started my company, my husband and I would take lots of trips out to wine country. And we happened to find an opportunity to purchase a property that had a planted vineyard. And lo and behold, we found out that these wines, these grapes were highly sought after grapes and we collaborated with the Christopher Creek winery to produce our own pinot noir from those grapes. So when grapes come from a single vineyard, there's a lot of care that takes place in the vineyard. So when during harvest time, the uh winemaker and the crew will go out and only select the most premium grapes to go into the wines. It's a very careful process. You don't want to get it mixed up with non grape material, for example. And when the grapes are brought to the winery, they all get hand sorted to make sure that only the best grapes go into the wine making process, keeping the wine at a premium wine with beautiful tastes and aromas only from, from the grapes themselves. What we want to keep the expression of the grapes just as natural as possible. I love the way you put that, the expression, the grapes quality control, maintaining a vineyard, all that has to be difficult. It, it is definitely not easy. It requires a very diligent team going out there making sure, you know, did, did the vines get enough water or is there too much water, is the canopy, you know, shading the grapes too much? Do we have to cut back on some of those leaves? These are all in important questions that have to be, you know, discussed between the winemaker and the farmers that help to cultivate the vineyard um that all goes into the process of wine making. So yes, there's a lot of questions and a lot of things um that go that go forward in making a premium wine, but good wine starts with good grapes. And uh we're very to have that. How many women are in this industry? Oh, my gosh. That's a really great question. I know that there are so many great women winemakers out there. I've read about them in uh different wine spectator articles. Um They're definitely on the up and up. I've also seen a lot more women sommeliers being certified and out there, I've met some, you know, along my way here when I'm out selling the products, which has been great and they've been a big support to me as well. Um And we definitely want to support each other. So, um yeah, and it just continues to grow. I do think that there's um in more interest from women to enter the field and to become part of the wine industry. What's a sommelier? Yeah. What is that? Yeah, a sommelier is basically a wine expert that will work with um restaurants or hotels to be their kind of consul for the wine. So as a patron, if I go into a restaurant down and I look at the wine list and I may be confused or I don't really know what to order. The sommelier is there to help, provide advice and they are trying to

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714spotlightnj5_2024-07-14-12-09-29

We are talking with Rania Kassam. She is the president and CEO of three Js imports based here in Middlesex County. You all enjoyed a big honor in Washington DC. Yes, we did the share. Ok. This past April, we were invited by the wines of Argentina to go down to Washington DC to the embassy, the Argentine Embassy and basically feature our wines from Argentina, which are the Aldon from the Aldon Wine Estate. Um It was a great honor because we were just one of a very few that were invited to be there. Um So we felt really privileged and it was a wonderful opportunity to understand um what the organization does. They really want to help bring more products, more wines from Argentina to the American market. Um And it was basically celebrating uh International Malbec Day. So it fit perfectly. We were there pouring wines, meeting people all over the industry, from hotels to chefs to um restaurant owners. It was, it was fabulous, fabulous. And um quite an honor. They sort of play into your purpose too. You wanna bring a variety of wine wines to the American palate. That's correct. Absolutely. And these also come from small production, even though they come from Argentina, all of these wines are done in small batches. So for example, this one, you know, less than 100 and 50 cases are produced at one particular time. Um and not a lot of this type of wine from Argentina is being represented here. Why is it important to have it represented? It just gives more options to the consumer. And you know, there's again that difference in the quality level of these types of wines. And a lot of people think, well, I can't really afford expensive, you know, they, they must be expensive if they're right. Right. Well, that's not the case at all. We're, we're finding that we can produce from these producers and bring them into market for a very reasonable cost. That's good for the consumer. Absolutely. What else are you learning being involved in this industry? I'm learning about how to competitively place my products in the market. I'm learning that customers have a eagerness to learn about wines that there's still such a lack of education. Um And they're so pleased when they come to my tastings and hear my stories and I share a lot of information about how the wines are produced and made and I get such great feedback. Oh, thank you so much for sharing this with me. I had no idea and yes, these do taste really wonderful. I love them, you know, and they just keep coming back. We found that we were getting repeat customers at a lot of our stores that we sell to. Who do you find? Are your customers all ages, all that of drinking age? Yes. Exactly. Exactly. Yes. So we, we've been selling to people who are very athletic and into sports, but love to enjoy a great bottle of wine with their friends. Um, and also from the baby boomer generation who are looking for something different, maybe not just the same French names that they're used to, or the Italian names that they're used to and they stumble across these products and are very, very pleased when they taste them.

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714spotlightNJ6_2024-07-14-12-22-25

We are putting the spotlight on three Js imports based in Middlesex County, Rania Cassem is the president and Ceo and Rania, you all are all about giving back along with being a business. Absolutely. It is something very important to me to give back to my community. Um In the past three years, we have been a big supporter of the Boys and Girls Club of Philadelphia. Um This has been headed by uh former uh coach Dick Vermeil who used to coach for the Philadelphia Eagles. It's something very near and dear to his heart and we definitely wanted to be a part of that. So not only do we auction off um cases of wine and we pour the wine at the event, but we also with the collaboration of Aldon Wine estates, which is a wine and Wellness destination. We offer trip packages to go down to the wine estates and visit. I bet people enjoy those. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. It's been a huge, huge thing and I feel so wonderful doing that. You know, I have to share this success and what a great way to do it than to give back to our community. Um We will in the future be helping the Saint Jude's Foundation. So in November, we have something scheduled with them. So I'm very, very excited and first and foremost, I have to say a big big thank you to all my retailers who have been so supportive of me and my business and my passion and allowing me to go into their stores and do the tastings and sell these wines. Um I just wanna say a big thanks to Giannoni wine and liquors uh in West New York and Hoboken to uh Vine Republic in Berkeley Heights, to Edwin's out in Branchburg, uh to wine chateau in Metuchen uh to Dietrich and, and Vine Borough. I mean, there's just so many I wanna thank and I couldn't get to all of them, but I just want you to know that I deeply, deeply appreciate all your love and support in, in my journey, in your journey, that love and support of your family. I'm sure that plays a big role too. Absolutely. They have been my rock, they have been my everything. Um you know, the support of my husband both uh emotionally financially and, you know, just keeping me, you know, firm and grounded. Exactly. Exactly. And the support of my Children knowing if mom's not around, you know, can I make dinner tonight without her help? So, everybody has played a huge role and I'm super, super grateful for that. What advice would you offer? To other women who are interested in stepping into this industry. Absolutely. If you have a love and passion for wine and whatever part of the wine business you wanna get into, please, you know, don't hesitate, don't feel intimidated. There is opportunity for everyone, you know, um some people feel like they have to know so much before they get started and they really don't. It's quite a learning journey. You know, I'm still learning and growing and, you know, if I fail or make a mistake, I have to pick myself back up and learn from that and it's all part of the process. Um I did take a long time off from being in the work industry and then going back, it starts slowly, but then you find yourself one day just rolling with it and it's just working. And I think that's the best gratitude anyone could feel is that your hard work, everything you put into it comes right back to you.

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Founder Ronya Kasim joined News 12’s Della Crews to discuss the business and the products it offers.

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