The people involved in running
the Brown Derby chain, seen
here at the Brown Derby
International Wine Center, are
owner Ron Junge (far right),
wife JoAnn (seated beside
him), daughter Jennifer
Feuerbacher, and son-in-law
and director of operations
Brad Feuerbacher.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAN ROCKAFELLOW
BY JACK ROBERTIELLO
G
iven the task of locating one of the country's best fine wine enterprises within the borders of
Missouri, a novice could be forgiven for starting his search somewhere near the St. Louis Arch, or
close to the once bustling Kansas City stockyards. But while there are any number of great wine
shops doing business in the cities on the East and West ends of the I-70 corridor, it's in Springfield,
the southwestern Missouri city of 160,000 closer to Arkansas and Oklahoma, where the search
begins and ends. Because that's where the Brown Derby International Wine Center & Marketplace has been
doing business for more than 40 years.
Regularly lauded in such major consumer publications as Food & Wine and the Wall Street Journal for the
breadth and depth of the wine selection and its pioneering catalog business, the International Wine Center has
been in some ways emblematic of the changing American relationship with wine, reflecting and sometimes
leading trends since the 1970s.
Beverage Dynamics • www.beveragedynamics.com • January/February 2014 • 23
