About 150 diplomats, businessmen, journalists and wine connisseours joined The Palms

Restaurant and Tavern in welcoming California-based Wente Vineyards Vice President

John Schwartz to Cambodia on Saturday July 6.

Schwartz was in town to innaugurate the launch of their California wines in the Kingdom,

as part of its expanding presence in the southeast Asian region.

Wente's first shipment of 1,000 cases of its wines arrived in Cambodia in late May

and is now being distributed to hotels, restaurnats, duty free shops and private

retailers by the Phnom Penh-based United Distributors Cambodia, which is a shareholder

in The Palms.

Accompanying Schwartz was Wente Executive Chef Kimball Jones who treated the assembled

guests to a four-course dinner of the latest in California cuisine, not to mention

the ample servings of Wente's varied "fruits of the vine."

Wente is one of America's premier wine exporters and was the first to crack the Eastern

European market, opening an office in Moscow in l989. As well, Wente was the first

US winemaker to re-enter Vietnam after the lifting of the 19-year trade embargo in

l994.