Most wine-lovers never give a thought to the importers and distributors who supply wine to New York retailers and restaurants. Be advised that the trend, as in football, favors brawnier players. Late last year, for example, the giant, Georgia-based, National Distributing Company bought a local firm and entered the New York market. And just last month, Florida based Southern Wine & Spirits, the country’s largest wine distributor with 8,000 employees, arrived in town after first gobbling up two local distributors. But the trend is not absolute. Consider 2-year-old Bouquet du Vin, a spunky local importer-distributor representing wines from five countries. Until the hiring of a salesperson this month, the firm had no employees other than its president, Amy Meyer.

In 2002, the slender and soft-spoken Ms. Meyer, now 46, bailed out of a high-powered career in finance to land feet first in the “back office” world of wine. If Bouquet du Vin were the subject of an animal fable, it would demonstrate that, by displaying agility and a nose sensitized to worthy wines overlooked by others, it is possible for a mouse to survive, even thrive, under the nose of lions.

While Bouquet du Vin’s sales volume is still miniscule compared to the giant importer-distributors, it is growing rapidly and its wines are starting to appear in the right places. They’re on the shelves of such high profile wine shops as Morrell at Rockefeller Center and Whole Foods at the Time Warner Center. They’re served at top-end restaurants including Daniel, Artisanal, and Masa. Just-opened Yumcha, the buzzy Asian fusion restaurant in Greenwich Village, will shortly inaugurate a wine list that omits such standards as red Bordeaux and California Cab but includes four selections from Bouquet du Vin. In Atlantic City, the foodie-friendly casino Borgata pours Ms. Meyer’s wines, as do the Breakers and Four Seasons in Palm Beach. In all, Ms. Meyer’s wines are in more than 60 East Coast restaurants.

How has a one-woman firm managed to mix it up with the big boys and not get flattened? First, by keeping out of their way. “When I started researching the wine business three years ago,” Ms. Meyer said, “I looked for a wine region that nobody else was paying attention to. And up came the Niagara Peninsula of Canada, where the wines have a cool-climate delicacy that I favor. I checked out the wine lists of the best Canadian restaurants, figuring that would tell me which of these wineries were best. Then I drove up there and started to discover these great wines for myself.”

Not all of these wines were so great, however. At the first winery Ms. Meyer visited, which she’d rather not name, the owner spent hours showing off his wines. “I felt that some had a petrol scent that put me off,” she said. “That couldn’t work for a company called Bouquet du Vin. My whole thing is that, if a wine smells captivating, you are going to like drinking the wine.”

Below the reserve level, Canadian reds can be lean. It’s the whites, notably chardonnay and Riesling, that deliver both sleek style and flavor. Where Canada has really gained international traction is with its ice wines, whose startlingly intense sweet fruit flavor is the result of crushing grapes after they freeze on the vine in early winter. Water in the grapes crystalizes out as ice, leaving just the nectar. The market is not clamoring for ice wine, but Ms. Meyer has found a niche for it. “I’d seen mini-bottles of ice wine at checkout counters in Canada,” Ms. Meyer said. “And I thought, wouldn’t it be neat to have them in hotel room minibars?” They are now in minibars at the Four Seasons in Palm Beach and are poured by the glass at the Bargetto.

Bouquet du Vin currently represents five Canadian wineries, and they are the firm’s specialty, but Ms. Meyer says she “knew better than to put all my eggs in one basket.” The firm also offers wines from Long Island, Chile, Germany, and Australia. As a group, the wines show refinement and purity of flavors. Fruit bombs and high-alcohol wines do not make Ms. Meyer’s cut. If Ms. Meyer doesn’t like a wine’s label, she will insist on redesigning it with a focus on simplicity and liberal use of gold accents. “When I worked in a women’s shop as a teenager,” Ms. Meyer explains, “I noticed that many customers gravitated toward the Chanel handbags which had lots of gold on them. I remembered that.”

Ms. Meyer, who has degrees in accounting and finance, headed for Wall Street after graduating from the University of Delaware and rose quickly to head the tax department at Merrill Lynch. “It was the mid-1980s,” she said, “and I was privileged to take clients to the best restaurants. I took notes on the wine and began my own collection.” After 10 years on Wall Street, Ms. Meyer moved on to a job in the telecom industry. By this time, she had developed expertise as a forensic accountant. In 2002, she traveled to Haiti to investigate suspected financial irregularities in a telecom contract. It was a tension filled time, and she was constantly accompanied by shotgun-wielding guards. “By the time I returned home, I’d had it,” she said. “I was ready to do wine.”

Wine importation is heavy on paperwork, and Ms. Meyer contracts out that work, leaving her more time to build the business, one wine and one customer at a time.

One such wine is the Korrell Johanneshof Riesling Spatlese 2002, the only German wine in Bouquet du Vin’s portfolio. I bought a bottle at Whole Foods for $12.99, a price that undercut most Spatlese-level wines.

“Amy’s pricing seemed really low for a wine of that quality,” said Otto Hahn, a manager at the store. “But it reflects that she has less overhead than those giants with big public-relations and marketing budgets. We love finding little gems like that in Amy’s portfolio.”

Recommended Wines From Bouquet du Vin

BODEGA CIEN Y CERRO CABERNET SAUVIGNON RESERVE 2002 RAPEL VALLEY, CHILE ($12.95)
Aromas of cassis, then ripe plummy flavors tempered by earthiness. This full-flavored wine, soft in the center and mildly tannic at the edges, had me thinking of Saint Emilion. (At Whole Foods Columbus Circle.)

KONZELMANN ESTATE VIDAL ICEWINE 2000 ONTARIO ($44.95 FOR A HALF BOTTLE)
Vidal, a hybrid of European and North American grapes, hits its stride as ice wine, thanks to bracing acidity. It keeps this ice wine from tasting like fruit syrup. Scintillating nectarine and ginger notes and a very long finish. (At Whole Foods and, three floors up, by the glass at Masa.)

HIGHBANK COONAWARRA PROPRIETARY RED 2001 ($44.95)
A fresh minty note on the nose, then pure and stylish plum and chocolate notes in the mouth. If you’ve been put off by Australian wines that come on too foursquare, this elegant red will restore your faith. A Bordeaux blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and cabernet franc. (At Morrell, 212-688-9370.)

PENINSULA RIDGE INOX CHARDONNAY 2002 ONTARIO
A “no-oaker” French-style, food-friendly white made by Jean-Pierre Colas, who was chief winemaker at the esteemed Domaine Laroche in Chablis before arriving in Canada. With its green-apple driven flavor and flintiness, Inox is a ringer for a better-quality basic Chablis. This wine and others from Peninsula Ridge were introduced at a winemaker’s dinner at the Mark Hotel earlier this month. They aren’t in retail shops yet, but are worth watching for.