The Crew

As General Manager and all around chieftan, Melissa Monti Saunders applies the full spectrum of her obssessive complusive nature and former & current lawyerliness to every minute aspect of our activities.  You may think you’re getting away with something, but your not, and it will be presented to you in writing at some point.  This isn’t a diss, though - I’m just saying that Melissa is a t crosser and i dotter extroadinaire.  She also happens to be a careful planner, future worrier, super marathoner, epicurean explorer, arch cook, and bad to the bone wine savant who holds a WSET Diploma (and who is currently pursuing the Master of Wine accreditation. This married Brooklynite (Clinton Hill) has in the past worked as a lawyer for abused women and continues to be an advocate for strong women in all of life’s roles. She and her husband Dan have operated a boutique wine importing business for several years focusing on high end, limited production wines from New Zealand - Otto’s Constant Dream is the natural solution to limitations of solely being an importer. OCD lets Melissa use all of her talents from varietal development to distribution to education. No stranger to the greatest vineyards from Napa to Burgundy, Melissa has also been the East Coast Account Manager for Chateau Montelena - a groundbreaking California winery. You can find Melissa and the rest of us in Prospect Park often on nice weekends playing cutthroat croquet - Melissa’s the one on her Blackberry.

Do not for one second let the infallible civility and those colorfully patterned dress shirts fool you - Daniel Saunders will bite off your nose, eat it and then say in his (probably fake) New Zealand accent, “what happened to your nose mate?” Don’t answer, it’s a setup for an even crueler joke and you should probably head to a hospital. It’s that kind of ruthlessness that lets him crunch numbers so emotionlessly. In that stoic atmosphere thrives some of the most creative business modeling the world has ever seen. Dan’s spreadsheets are pure numbers porn, if that’s your thing, and his business plans are like post and rail fencing: classically beautiful boundaries in which thoroughbreds whinny and trot like the rip-snorting ass-kickers that they are while paradoxically enjoying their confines. It’s a delicate art that Dan excels at time and time again. It’s because you have to mind your nose while in his presence. You’ve been warned. When not toiling for Communal Brands and Otto, Dan can be found doing his dangerous tango at Renaissance Group in Long Island.

Mr. Creative Director to you, Obama. When not schooling the president in pick-up basketball games at the Bedford Stuyvesant Y, Chris Antista is busy fermenting secret ingredients in 50 gallon plastic drums (for flavor) to make his famous Bed Stuy Deadeye Malt Beverage in his Brownstone basement. Prior to being the mouse-jockey and idea machine for Otto, Chris was the chief concept maven and founding partner of the famous Lansky Lounge on the Lower East Side and the hot dog institution, Crif Dogs in the East Village. Having been an idea guy for a long time, Chris gets to let his dreams run wild while making Otto do all of his dirty work for him: muse and fall guy all in one. If Chris offends you sometimes, he’ll just tell you it’s Otto and he’s drunk and he can’t help it. Don’t believe him. He’s lying. He’s just trying to push your buttons so you’ll react. In Chris’ creative world the biggest failure is no reaction at all. Down with the ‘whatever’ generation! Viva love! Viva Hate!





As chief pot-stirrer and finger-dipper for Otto’s Constant Dream, Fiona Turner leaves no grape unturned in her quest to be a rock star…in the wine world.  With a Masters in Biochemistry, Fiona took a roundabout trip from the lab to the vineyard.  Inextricably linked, the lab and vineyard are often testy bedfellows as in any vocation where tradition and history constantly loom over every application of technology to a process steeped in divine reverence.  Fiona is a perfect ambassador.  Kismet (and the need for travelling money) led Fiona to a job at Rapaura Vintners in Marlborough, New Zealand. Heretofore unfamiliar with the wine business, Fiona found herself preternaturally adept at the chemistry of wine, which turned this stopover into a 2 year stint as well as an introduction to an industry she loved. She wanted to see more. The next few years were a travelling education in wine – from California to the vineyards of Europe, Fiona earned her Kiwi global-hopping bona fides all the while keeping the focus on wine – even if the focus got blurry from consumption! Her return to New Zealand found her at Vavasour Wines in Marlborough and Sacred Hill in Hawkes Bay for 2 seasons each and afforded experience in most of the jobs associated with wine making, from the oldest traditions in the soil to the newest techniques in the lab, cellar and bottling halls. In 2001, whilst prepping for another oenological adventure abroad, serendipity once again showed her magical grace; she got a message from Matt Thompson with her dream job offer. Now working side by side with her mentor Matt Thompson at Kiwi-oeno as a Consultant Winemaker, Fiona continues her journey in wine. Like many great winemakers, Fiona also runs a small family vineyard in
Blind River with her husband Hamish.

Of the whole crew, Ness Paton is by far the most likely to send you a recipe when you’re in a funk. My favorite was when I had been dumped by a girl I was pretty keen on, she sent me a recipe for Forget That Bitch Stroganoff. It was really just beef stroganoff with like an extra 4 cups of red wine in the recipe, but really it was the thought that counted. Her yet-to-be-pubished opus on cooking lamb, “Your Royal LambNess” is almost at 1000 recipes! Ness has been a professional chef for 10 years and a wine connoisseur for 8.4 (she can be maddeningly precise about certain things) and she lives in New Zealand with her husband (who’s in the wine biz) and her kids. Ness is our NZ fixer who makes sure Otto gets his head taken care of properly from the vineyard to the bottler to the shipper. If you’re really nice, she might send you one of her famous recipes one day like, Sorry Your Mum’s Dead Soda Bread.
(super delicious by the way).