Colorado Springs businessman more than happy to spend time in the

Colorado Springs Business Journal, Nov 17, 2006 by CSBJ Staff Report

Wine is Alan Manley's business.

A former restaurant owner, he now operates Colorado Cellar Consulting, a business that designs, builds and manages wine cellars for homes, bars and restaurants around the state.

Now, Manley is branching out. His company has launched a retail Web site, coloradocellarconsulting.com, which sells a variety of wines - from the very affordable to the very expensive.

Manley prides himself on being able to find wines to suit every budget and taste. He recently took time to tell CSBJ about himself and his company.

Company: Colorado Cellar Consulting

Position: President

Hometown: Chappaqua, N.Y., and Pontresina, Switzerland

How long have you lived in Colorado Springs: 24 years

Education: Bachelor's degrees in geology, economics and philosophy from Colorado College.

A few words about your company: We design, build, fill and manage wine cellars.

Recent accomplishments: Launching a Web-based retail wine store.

Biggest career break: I opened and owned Primitivo, a four- diamond restaurant in Colorado Springs. This gave me a lot of credibility in the wine-drinking community.

The toughest part of your job: 1. Employee reviews. I want to be critical but fair. It's a fine balance. 2. Telling a prospective customer that he or she cannot have all of my allocation of an impossible-to-get, insanely expensive wine - I have other collectors who want this wine as well, and have purchased it for ages. 3. Tasting 400 wines in a week is tough - I only do this one or two weeks of the year, thankfully. 4. The most challenging thing is finding really great wines for my customers who want everyday wines at a reasonable price; too often, producers start jacking up their prices as soon as they get a few favorable reviews. Good wine need not be expensive - in fact, there's loads of it floating around, one just has to work harder to find it - and finding great value wines is one of the most rewarding aspects of my job.

Someone you admire: My grandfather, Otto.

About your family: My family is scattered across Europe and the United States. There's always a place to stay when I travel.

Something else you'd like to accomplish: Finish reading all the books in my library. And live in Rome.

How your business will change in the next decade: The Web will become increasingly important - especially for wines that are difficult to find, made in small quantities and ageable. As the wine- buying public grows and their knowledge increases, they'll start looking farther and farther from their local wine shop for the things they're interested in. The Web is a natural and efficient way of looking for those items, and finding them.

What book are you currently reading? "Chess Story" by Stefan Zweig and "La Bella Figura" by Beppe Severgnini.

What is the one thing you would change about Colorado Springs? Less sprawl - other than the old downtown, old north end, Broadmoor and west-side areas, it seems to lack much of a sense of a cohesive city. Better public transportation - especially a rail link from Colorado Springs to Denver. Separating the city from the county. More parks. More bike trails. Making Tejon Street downtown a pedestrian mall. That said, there's so much to love about where we live - the people, the climate and the mountains are fantastic.