A Blog with a Mission

Welcome!

My mission is to share the passion for wine and winemaking I have acquired and developed over the last 35 years with anyone who has an interest in learning more.

Before becoming a professional winemaker, I spent 18 years as an amateur, gleaning as much information as I could from fellow amateurs, professional winemakers, and a series of books and literature.  I discovered that, if you ask 10 winemakers how to do something, you may get 10 different answers.  What works well for one may not work well for another….or they just got accustomed to doing it their way.  I plan to share my practical experiences, including both successes and failures as an amateur winemaker, as well as information about equipment and fruit, and the processes you can use to make commercial quality wine at home.  I will be including some tips, tricks, and timely reminders as well.

In addition, I have the firm belief that to truly understand and appreciate wine, you should be a consumer of wines from all regions of the world, including the wines being produced in your own area.  Where you live may not be world famous (apologies to those of you who live in Napa or Champagne or Tuscany or the like) but it can hold some surprising gems that are wonderfully accessible.  I plan to share some of the information I’ve prepared over the years for wine appreciation classes to help make wine more approachable and enjoyable.

I expect to make weekly posts to this blog and I invite you, with great enthusiasm, to join me as I retrace this nearly lifelong journey from clueless to professional winemaker and international wine judge.  It has been quite a ride.