About Koper & Karaf
Koper & Karaf is the outcome of our wine dream.
We are Marten van den Brand and Dennis Koster. Our story begins, like many beautiful stories, at a table with a bottle of wine. After one bottle, a second quickly followed. Famous grapes and producers made way for unknown wine regions, special vintages, and small-scale winemakers.
Before we knew it, we were standing together among the vineyards in the Champagne region during a wine trip. What started as a shared interest grew into a rather out-of-control hobby. This hobby now has a name: Koper & Karaf.
As wine importers, we focus on private wine enthusiasts and the business market. Our wines find their way to people's homes, but also to restaurants, wine shops, businesses, parties, and events. Whatever you are looking for: we are happy to listen, taste, and think along with you.
Two tastes, one story
Our wine tastes don't always align. And that is precisely our strength.
We taste, evaluate, and select our wines together, each from our own perspective. Sometimes we agree immediately, sometimes a robust discussion is needed. A wine only enters our assortment when we are both convinced that it adds something special.
Marten focuses within Koper & Karaf on procurement, operations, and technology, both in the bottle and behind the scenes. From his analytical background in the tech sector, he approaches wine systematically. He not only wants to know if a wine is good but especially why it tastes the way it does. He looks at the coherence between grape, soil, climate, vintage, and vinification.
Marten is SDEN 3- and WSET Level 3-certified and is currently completing the Vinologist training at the Wine Academy.
Dennis also considers the story behind the wine and its potential place within the assortment during selection. For which wine lover is it interesting? Does it fit on a restaurant menu, on the shelf of a wine shop, or perhaps at a special dinner at home?
Within Koper & Karaf, Dennis mainly focuses on commerce, marketing, communication, and personal contact with our customers. He brings over fifteen years of commercial experience and is SDEN 3-certified.
Our different tastes and perspectives keep us sharp. The result is a broad, idiosyncratic, and carefully curated wine assortment. Our advice does not start with what we want to sell, but with what you are looking for.
From the vineyard to your glass
We don't select good wine just from behind a desk or based on a beautiful brochure.
We visit the winemakers we work with as much as possible in person. We walk through their vineyards, taste in the cellar, and listen to the stories of the people who actually make the wine. This way, we not only get to know the wine but also the choices, convictions, and circumstances behind every bottle.
In addition, we visit carefully selected wine fairs at home and abroad. We don't have to be everywhere. We consciously choose the fairs where we can meet existing producers, taste new vintages, and discover unique winemakers who fit with Koper & Karaf.
Even during our holidays, wine is never far away. Whether we travel together or separately with our families: a visit to an existing winemaker or a detour through an unknown wine region is almost always included.
This way, we maintain personal contact with our producers and continue to search for new gems.
Wine is more than work for us
Our love for wine does not stop when the workday is over.
You can regularly find us at wine festivals, culinary events, and other places where wine is central. Sometimes we are there on behalf of Koper & Karaf to let people taste our own wines. At least as often, we walk around ourselves, glass in hand, to gain inspiration, discover new flavors, and especially to enjoy. This curiosity forms the basis of our assortment. We only sell wines that we are enthusiastic about ourselves and that we want to confidently share with others.
Our wine assortment
Our assortment consists of over 125 wines, each exclusively imported by us. We find them at small-scale wine producers in France, Italy, Germany, Portugal, and Spain, including Mallorca. These are producers who master their craft, follow their own path, and make wines that you don't just find on supermarket shelves.
From accessible discoveries for the everyday glass to special terroir wines, older vintages, and iconic bottles: every wine has been tasted and consciously selected by us.
What can we do for you?
Are you looking for a special wine for home, a suitable gift, or a new discovery for your wine cellar? Or do you want to know what Koper & Karaf can do for your restaurant, wine shop, business, party, or event?
We would love to meet you.
Schedule a time with us. We'll bring the bottles.