OUR BACKGROUND
We moved to Calgary, Canada, from Moscow, Russia, in July 2001. We both have graduated from the Moscow University. Sergei has master’s degree in law and Karina has master’s degree in foreign languages. Sergei worked for 13 years as a lawyer and judge of the City of Moscow. Karina worked for 10 years for a Canadian owned commercial real estate company that has an office in Moscow. For the last couple of years she was the general manager of the property management division of the company.
When we came to Canada we realized that all our knowledge, skills and experience in dealing with people and selling our services could be used in liquor business. We have good connections in the liquor industry in Russia and we saw a niche in the Alberta market for high premium authentic Russian liquor products such as a Russian vodka. And we brought our first product – Black Stallion Russian Vodka. This is how we came to the liquor industry.
Karina has successfully completed two wine courses offered by the International Sommelier Guild on her way to the Sommelier diploma. Sergei has also completed his WSET 2 certification but for the two of them, the knowledge they gained from the last 20 years is more than enough to succeed.
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Black Stallion Spirits Inc. liquor agency has been operating since 2002 when we brought the first container of our Black Stallion Russian vodka to Alberta.
Today we are very proud to say that we have come a long way. We have expanded our portfolio to include some great spirits and wines.
Our products are sold in over 500 liquor stores of Alberta including all major chains. We work very closely with many restaurants, bars, clubs and hotels.
We have our headoffice in Calgary, Alberta.
We have expanded our activities to other provinces with most recently to British Columbia as of 2022. We also sell some of our products to Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
In October 2013, Shalan Parks joined our team. Shalan comes from a strong working history in both purchasing and sales. Belief in strong relationships is the key to her professional success. Her interest in wine is long, but it’s vastly extensive including the completion of her WSET 2. She has travelled extensively and has always found her way to the vineyards. Her explorations have taken her to France, Italy, Spain, Washington State, Niagara and NY State, and British Columbia, with more to come…
“ What is most interesting about wine is the story it tells about the land where it is grown and the people who make it”
In January of 2019, the fourth member joined the Black Stallion Spirits family. Nikita Maslov is the son of Karina and Sergei and has grown up with industry all around him. Finishing his marketing degree in 2018, and along with his WSET 2 certification he has been a big role in expanding the foundation of the northern part of Alberta for the company. With wine all around him his whole life it only makes sense why he chose to follow in his parents footsteps and hopefully grow the company as far as possible.
In November of 2022 our 5th team member joined the company from within the family as Karina and Sergei’s son in law joined Black Stallion! Adam Baptie takes his years of experience working in sales at Winsport, TELUS Convention centre, tourism Calgary, and destination Canada and brings a lot of his skills and strong work ethic to the company.
In 2023, a 6th team member joined Black Stallion as the territory manager in British Columbia. Mahesh Kumar Rana joins the Black Stallion team working in Vancouver, British Columbia. Mahesh takes his years of working for Sula vineyard in India as well as a sales representative for an agency in Surrey, British Columbia before moving over to join the Black Stallion team.
COMPANY PHILOSOPHY AND POLICY
Our philosophy is RELATIONSHIP, TRUST, REPUTATION.
The policy of our company is based on three main factors:
- Strong business and personal relationship with our customers – liquor stores, wine boutiques, bars, restaurants owners and managers.
- High quality products in our portfolio
- Close mutually beneficial relations with suppliers of our products.