Today we’d like to introduce you to Brooks Trabold.
Brooks, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Well, I grew up in the Park Cities, attended Highland Park high school, and went to the University of Oklahoma to study film, although I ultimately graduated from University of North Texas in 2014 with a degree in Business and Film.
After graduating, I scored a 2-year contract for a lead role in a reality tv show which quickly flopped before production even started. But you know what they say – the show must go on (obviously not literally in this case). So I joined the real world and landed my first big boy job as an analyst for a healthcare valuation company. Long story short, I realized the cubical life was not for me, so I started doing some soul searching to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I didn’t know much, but I knew I wanted to be successful, challenge myself, travel, and, most importantly, I wanted to arrive and leave work each day with a smile on my face.
Next thing I knew, I put in my two weeks at work, started packing my bags, and told my family I was moving out to wine country to work with our dear friend, Dominic Foppoli, Mayor of Windsor, at his winery, Christopher Creek. After my speaking with Dom on the phone, I was convinced that I would be much happier in wine country and, from there, I would figure out what it was that I wanted to do with my life, whether be it in the wine industry, or elsewhere.
Fast forward two weeks – my mother, who so graciously volunteered to drive with me out to California, and I were en-route to Healdsburg, California. We were about 5 hours into the drive, when I got a phone call from Dominic. “Hey Brooks it’s Dom. I hate to say this to you, but I don’t think we are going to have a job for you anymore. The winery is about to burn down.” Turns out, the day after I quit my job, the 2017 fires in Napa/Sonoma started and the winery I was supposed to work for was right in the path of destruction. After two days of radio silence from Dominic, I finally got the thumbs up that the winery, and my job, were safe.
Upon arrival, I realized that things were not as I had expected. You see – when I was promised a job and a place to stay, I was told that I would have my own bedroom in a cozy home with four roommates. Turns out that, because of the fires in the neighborhood, there were a large number of friends and family that had been displaced from their homes, and my new home had now become their place of refuge. Instead of having four roommates and the guest bedroom, I was now sharing a four-bedroom house with 15 people and sleeping on the living room couch with my roommate’s grandma.
Despite the change in circumstance, I was the happiest I had ever been.
Work was amazing and I was learning and experiencing something new each day. But about 85% of scheduled trips to the winery had been canceled, and business was extremely slow – turns out no one wanted to visit wine country when they believed everything was burnt to a crisp. But the silver lining was that, because it was slow, I was able to work in a variety of roles (e.g. farming, winemaking, wine club, etc.) and completely fall in love with the industry.
I started attending small business owners meetings with Dominic and a few other small-production wineries in the area to help brainstorm solutions to generate more business. I had spent hours listening to these business owners talk about the suffering loss of business and property that resulted from the fires, and that’s when I had the idea to bring these businesses with me to Texas. Unlike most big-name wines who have the resources and marketing dollars to succeed in chain grocery stores and other retail venues, most of these wineries earn their revenue through wine club sales and physical sales at their tasting rooms. I thought “if we can’t get the customers to wine country, why not bring a bit a wine country to the customer?”. So, I packed my bag and a couple bottles of wine, and I made my way back to Texas where I was going to represent and make a name for these wines as a distributer.
And with that, Chukfi LLC was born!
Things were tough and I really had no idea what I was doing, but I was learning as I went. I had to work two additional jobs, driving uber and stocking wine at Royal Blue Grocery, just to support myself and my business. But as time went on, and wine country began to return to some form of normalcy, I started to find my footing and the company grew. Local restaurants and stores that I grew up eating at encouraged me and expressed interest in carrying my wines.
Fast forward two years and a name change later and Chukfi LLC, now Flora and Fauna Imports, is rockin’ and rollin’, and I now have time to focus all of my efforts on F&F, rather than driving people around or stocking grocery shelves. Flora and Fauna now proudly represents eight boutique wineries from California, as well as two small Champagne Houses from France. (I just made my first trip to Europe to work harvest in Champagne in September). We’re also working with small producers from all over the world to import wines from not only Champagne, but also from San Marino, Spain, and Italy.
Working in the vineyard and at the winery taught me about all the TLC that goes into making small production wine – something that cannot be mimicked through mass production. So, despite our growth, our philosophy has remained the same: We want to work as hard representing the wines that we carry as the work that goes into getting them in bottle.
Today, we have our wines placed in over 30 restaurants and bodegas in the DFW area (and a couple in Austin) including our Parmeson Chardonnay at Royal Blue Grocery, 499 Freisa at Scardello, Two Old Dogs Sauv Blanc at Ocean Prime, Christopher Creek Sotoyome at Royal Oaks Country Club, and our Elwood Coalesce Pinot Noir at Bistro 31 and Musume, among various others. And we will continue to work hard to keep growing our book of producers (now from all over the world) and the number of outlets we place our wine at.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
If there were one thing that I hoped you would take away from my response to the previous question, it is that no part of this ongoing journey has been easy. But, I am an optimist and a firm believer that, in order to grow (as an individual and as a company), we have to challenge ourselves. If there is one thing that I’ve learned it is that, when you start a business on your own, it’s not always easy to keep a positive attitude. There will always be people waiting for you to fail. But, I’ve found that the best thing to do in this situation is to take the love and encouragement you receive from your supporters and apply that positive energy to work towards building my company, reaching my goals, and proving to the non-supporters what I am capable of.
There are numerous challenges that we face every day. Being in such a restaurant-saturated-city, it is difficult to compete against some of the largest conglomerates in the industry. And within the restaurant community, it is a challenge to even find opportunities that will allow us to compete with some of the brands that have, in many cases, been around longer than most of our brands have been in business. Once we find these opportunities, then we have to face the challenge of making ourselves known to the consumer – people are creatures of habit and, when it comes to wine, they tend to buy what they are familiar with. So, it is up to us to face these challenges by educating the restaurants, retailers, and consumers on what makes our products stand out compared to the big name brands.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Without over-complicating things, Flora and Fauna is a wine importation and distribution company. We purchase wine from wineries all over the world and place them in restaurants and shops we believe are the best fit to carry the products.
When going up against some of the larger wine brands, it is important to be proud of our presence and position on the shelf. We are happy to justify the extra $5 on cost of production here and there because we know that it goes into maintaining the quality of wines, which cannot be matched through mass production. And I think it’s important to note here that all of our producers love what they do, and they come from a background of passion, not money.
They say that wine passes over 100 hands before it ends up in the ultimate costumer’s possession. We’re proud to have a direct relationship with each person the wine touches before it ends up on the table or the shelf. This sense of community is one of the many things that sets us apart from other distributors.
What were you like growing up?
Growing up, I was definitely a handful. I’ve gained a major appreciation for my parents who somehow put up with me all those years. I have one older brother, Baxter, who I grew up looking up to and who I still consider to be my best friend. We spent a lot of time together, so I like to think that I take after him a bit. I am very grateful for the nature of our relationship. And we were always known to throw a pretty sweet party.
In high school I spent most of my time in class socializing and working on outside projects rather than taking notes. I didn’t play any sports in high school, which was difficult, but it allowed me to branch out and make friends with just about every personality type in the school (as opposed to remaining within a specific social group, which was common among those who were part of athletic teams). Treating others the way they wanted to be treated was something non-athletes understood, since we all just wanted to get along. I’ve taken this same mindset with me into adulthood and I think it’s an important mentality that has allowed me to be successful in the world of business.
Outside of school and hanging out with my brother, I enjoyed watching my friends compete in sports, and I participated in mixed martial arts and rock climbing. I still love finding obscure ways to exercise, and non-repetitious action sports have always been my thing. I enjoy the adrenaline and the constant desire to learn more and become better.
Current Wines + Locations:
- Parmeson Wines
- The Capital Grille: Zinfandel (Dallas, TX)
- Pignetti’s: Zinfandel (Temple, TX)
- Barton House: Zinfandel (Salado, TX)
- Mour Café: Pinot Noir | Rose | Zinfandel (Austin, TX)
- Gemma: Cabernet Sauvignon (Dallas, TX)
- Neighborhood Cellars: Zinfandel (Dallas, TX)
- Park City Club: Pinot Noir | Chardonnay | Zinfandel | Sauvignon Blanc | Cabernet Sauvignon | Rosé (Dallas, TX)
- Royal Oaks Country Club: Pinot Noir | Chardonnay | Zinfandel | Sauvignon Blanc | Cabernet Sauvignon | Rosé (Dallas, TX)
- Royal Blue Grocery: (Highland Park Village and Trammell Crow): Chardonnay | Sauvignon Blanc | Rose | Cabernet Sauvignon (Dallas, TX)
- Tulum: Sauvignon Blanc (Dallas, TX)
- Dallas Fine Wine: Chardonnay (Dallas, TX)
- Christopher Creek Winery
- Royal Oaks Country Club: Sotoyome Red Blend | Pinot Noir (Dallas, TX)
- Park City Club: Sotoyome Red Blend | Pinot Noir (Dallas, TX)
- Roots and Water: Sotoyome Red Blend (Dallas, TX)
- Ocean Prime: Viognier (Dallas, TX)
- Orno Café: Sotoyome Red Blend (Dallas, TX)
- Biagio Wine & Spirits Shoppe: Sotoyome Red Blend (Dallas, TX)
- Ideology Cellars
- Pogo’s Wine & Spirits : Cabernet Sauvignon (Dallas, TX)
- Royal Blue Grocery: Cabernet Sauvignon (Highland Park Village)
- WineTastic: Cabernet Sauvignon (Dallas, TX)
- Uptown Liquors: Cabernet Sauvignon (Dallas, TX)
- Elwood Wines
- Winewood Grill: Pinot Noir (Grapevine, TX)
- Pignetti’s: Pinot Noir (Temple, TX)
- Barton House: Pinot Noir (Salado, TX)
- Wolfgang Five Sixty: Pinot Noir (Dallas, TX)
- Bistro31: Pinot Noir (Dallas, TX)
- Stephan Pyles Flora Street Cafe: Pinot Noir (Dallas, TX)
- Homewood: Pinot Noir (Dallas, TX)
- Al Biernat’s North: Pinot Noir (Dallas, TX)
- Musume: Pinot Noir (Dallas, TX)
- Felix Culpa: Pinot Noir (Dallas, TX)
- Royal Blue Grocery: Pinot Noir (Highland Park Village)
- WineTastic: Pinot Noir (Dallas, TX)
- Shinsei: Pinot Noir (Dallas, TX)
- Lover’s Seafood & Market: Pinot Noir (Dallas, TX)
- Two Old Dogs
- Mour Café: Sauvignon Blanc | Cabernet Sauvignon (Austin, TX)
- Lover’s Seafood & Market: Sauvignon Blanc | Cabernet Sauvignon (Dallas, TX)
- Shinsei: Sauvignon Blanc | Cabernet Sauvignon (Dallas, TX)
- Imoto: Sauvignon Blanc | Cabernet Sauvignon (Dallas, TX)
- Ocean Prime: Sauvignon Blanc (Dallas, TX)
- Royal Blue Grocery: Sauvignon Blanc | Cabernet Sauvignon (Highland Park Village and Trammell Crow)
- Biagio Wine & Spirits Shoppe: Sauvignon Blanc | Cabernet Sauvignon (Dallas, TX)
- Roots and Water: Cabernet Sauvignon (Dallas, TX)
- Classic Wine Storage: Cabernet Sauvignon (Dallas, TX)
- JACK Wines
- Roots and Water: Cabernet Sauvignon | Proprietary Red Blend (Dallas, TX)
- Lover’s Seafood & Market: Cabernet Sauvignon | Proprietary Red Blend (Dallas, TX)
- Shinsei: Cabernet Sauvignon | Proprietary Red Blend (Dallas, TX)
- Imoto: Cabernet Sauvignon (Dallas, TX)
- Hailstone Vineyards
- Al Biernat’s North: Chardonnay | Cabernet Sauvignon (Dallas, TX)
- The Capital Grille: Chardonnay | Cabernet Sauvignon (Dallas, TX)
- The Network Bar: Chardonnay | Cabernet Sauvignon (Dallas, TX)
- Lover’s Seafood & Market: Chardonnay | Cabernet Sauvignon (Dallas, TX)
- Shinsei: Chardonnay | Cabernet Sauvignon (Dallas, TX)
- Imoto: Chardonnay | Cabernet Sauvignon (Dallas, TX)
- Royal Blue Grocery: Sauvingon Blanc | Cabernet Sauvignon (Highland Park Village)
- Rubia Cellars
- Coming February 2020
Contact Info:
- Address: 7411 Hines Place, Suite 118
Dallas, TX 75235 - Phone: (214) 697-1282
- Email: Brooks@FloraandFaunaImports.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/floraandfaunaimports/
Suggest a story: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
