Taigan.com adds boutique fine wines including one of Oprah’s Favorites – Blackbird Vineyards; whether it’s a gift pack of outstanding 2001 vintage Rioja or a case of 2008 La Follette Van der Kamp Pinot Noir, Taigan caters to the wine enthusiast looking for special and elusive wines.

Napa Valley, CA – April 20, 2011 – Curators, collectors and culinary connoisseurs; Taigan.com has partnered with prestigious boutique wineries to offer fine wines on its award-winning online e-commerce site. Already recognized for its hand-selected assemblage of fashion, accessories, gourmet food and home decor, Taigan adds a hand-cut group of the most coveted boutique fine wineries.

Where many online wine websites feature mass-produced wines, Taigan curates the most talented winemakers who represent wineries so passionate about quality and brand that they limit annual production. Explore Taigan’s growing portfolio of small lot fine wine winemakers, curators and artisans featuring:

Blackbird Vineyards an artisanal producer of Pomerol-inspired wines from the Napa Valle featuring varietals of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. Once a secret to the lucky who have discovered it, Blackbird Vineyards was named one of Oprah’s Favorite Things in January 2011.
A Wine For All – the first and only professional wine shop in America dedicated to boutique wines specifically under 3000 case production.
Bakerlane Vineyards Known for one of Sonoma’s most celebrated Rosé, as well as acclaimed Pinot Noir and Syrah varietals.
Bergstrom Wines Oregon’s Bergstrom Wines has made organic wine making a family affair.  Pinot Noir and Chardonnay varietals from the rich Oregon soil north of Portland delivers a purity of fruit they feel can only be achieved through non-industrial, artisanal winemaking.
Elyse Winery This Robert Parker-lauded Napa vineyard shares a passion for fine food and entertaining when creating their Cabernet, Chardonnay, Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, Nero Misto, Petit Sirah and other specialty blends.
La Follette Wines – One of the country’s foremost authorities on Pinot Noir, Greg La Follette has crafted some of the most acclaimed California wines under other labels. He now brings his knowledge and passion for organic wine making to his own boutique Sonoma County winery.
Michaud Vineyards’ proprietor Michael Michaud has a long track record of crafting critically acclaimed wines, both under his own label and as previous winemaker at Chalone Vineyard. Michaud Vineyard wines receive impressive scores and excellent reviews from some of the most well-respected critics and wine enthusiasts alike.
The Spanish Table offers one of the most extensive selections of Spanish & Portuguese wines in the US including rare, aged wines, Port, Madeira and Sherry and the “new champagne”, Cava and Rosé Cava.

Taigan.com’s  Wine & Drink category features a growing collection of the most interesting and passionate winemakers representing worldly and award-winning small lot wineries.

“We are proud to share what these winery gems offer from everyday to fine and rare; Taigan blends a balanced collection of unique and boutique wines from independent wineries looking to reach the online market of wine enthusiasts,” said Julia Reed, Creative Director.

Recognized as an innovator, Taigan is at the forefront of the online curated shopping buzz. Launched in September 2009, Taigan is an award-winning, editorially acclaimed shopping website that offers consumers access to more than 85 boutiques, designers and purveyors. Taigan showcases specialty retailers of women and men’s fashion, home décor, art, antiques, jewelry, gourmet food and wine and fine gifts, bringing the best shops to the sophisticated consumers’ fingertips.

“At Taigan.com, online shoppers access recognized and emerging designers, artists, brands, and now wineries that are not available via mainstream retailers,” Reed says. “Taigan represents the next wave of online retail as the shopper, the collector and the epicure seek a trusted environment to source new and established specialty items.”

About Taigan
Editorially noted in Lucky Magazine, InStyle, Departures, and Elle Décor,  winner of the Retailer of Excellence Award in the Internet Innovation category and named Technology Start-up of the Year, Taigan is recognized as the online shopping destination for a highly curated collection of boutiques, designers and purveyors.  Showcasing specialty retailers of women and men’s fashion, home décor, art, antiques, jewelry, gourmet food and wine and fine gifts, bringing the best shops to your fingertips. For the shopper, the collector, the epicure…  delivering an extraordinary and ever-expanding collection of shops and purveyors.  Creative Director Julia Reed delivers a collection of Elusive Finds, facts and profiles in Taigan’s fetch, online lifestyle magazine.

For more news, subscribe to the Taigan newsroom, stay connected on Taigan’s Facebook Fan Page or Follow us on Twitter @TaiganFinds.

Forbes Life Magazine writer Ann Abel highlights Taigan’s very own Caribiana Sea Skiffs owner Curt Morse in a piece titled “Caribiana Sea Skiffs: the coolest boats on the water.” These elegant boutique boats can be found on Taigan, the highly edited collection of online shops.

Abel’s article is printed in its entirety below:

Forbes Private Eye: The Coolest Boats on the Water.

For Curt Morse, it was love at first sight: She was beautiful, stylish, and at perfect ease in her element. She was also green and 23 feet long–a Caribiana skiff. As Morse recalls, “I walked up and touched it and it just resonated, like: This is a phenomenal boat.”

A few years later, he heard the boutique Gulf Coast boatbuilder had fallen on hard times in the wake of Hurricane Katrina; Caribiana Sea Skiffs was in fact on life support. Morse tracked down the company’s owner, and in 2007 he bought it, trading his former career in the horse business for one in the boat world. The transition was easy, he says, in that boating and horseback riding are both lifestyles rather than mere hobbies, and now he’s having tremendous fun running Caribiana.

Based on the svelte lines of Caribbean workboats, and available in a bouquet of vibrant colors, Caribianas are eye-grabbers. “It’s not just transportation,” Morse says proudly. “No one ever says these boats are ordinary-looking.” And they ride as well as they look: Slicing the water with their raked bows, they’re slim and trim at 6.5 feet wide, and with a 50 hp motor they can run flat-out (about 25 mph) for an hour on 3 gallons of gas.

The skiff you order is very much your own. Once the fiberglass hull arrives in the Foley, Alabama, shop, Caribiana’s craftsmen customize the details: cushion fabrics, engine type, rails, ropes, fishing-rod and cup holders, picnic tables, Bimini tops, bronze hardware, and of course all the hand-finished teak you can handle in the floorboards, rub rail, steering pedestal, and helm seat. All told, at least 200 man-hours go into building each skiff.

Morse shepherds buyers through the process, monitors each boat’s progress almost daily, and then–this is something you probably won’t find at Chris-Craft–delivers the boat personally. (He’s driven them as far as the Chesapeake Bay.) Your first ride in your new skiff is a shakedown cruise with the personable Morse himself, who ends up remaining in touch with many owners for years afterward.

Of course, all the Caribiana owners in the world would make up a pretty modest Christmas card list. The company can craft only about 12 boats a year, and there are roughly 110 in existence. It’s an exclusive club, with notably loyal members–a couple dozen attend a get-together every year.

One enthusiast is Gilbert Lamphere, who works in private equity in New York and uses his Caribiana at his homes in Florida and Maine. He was first attracted to the way it looks but notes that “as you delve into it, you realize that it’s unsurpassed in its ability to take on heavier water. It’s easy to maneuver and easy to dock, and it turns on a dime.” Other boaters take notice, too: “It’s quite a showpiece when people look at it compared to their boats.” Many owners report that they’re asked about their Caribianas virtually every time they take them out.

In fact, when Morse boated over to pick me up at a Pensacola Beach marina on what he called a weather-perfect “Chamber of Commerce morning” last January, he was late because the marine patrol had stopped him to admire his Caribiana.

As he drove us to lunch and I drove us back, everything he’d told me about the skiff’s getting close to the sea came into clear relief. The lightweight boat has a draft so shallow that you can float in just a foot of water and take it where similarly sized boats can’t go. You can park it on the beach. It handles like a dream–smooth, responsive, quiet. All true…but what sold me in the end was simply thinking how great I looked at the helm.

To read the original article, see: Caribiana Sea Skiffs.

$35,000 – $65,000. www.taigan.com/caribianaseaskiffs