About
The restaurant business
Like many people who get into the wine business, I started out in the restaurant business. I worked every position possible from busboy, dishwasher, schlep, waiter, purchaser, bartender, head-schlep, manager to General Manager. For more than 20 years I was devoted to the restaurant business. I opened and managed bars and restaurants for the top restaurateurs in Metro Detroit. What I loved most about the restaurant business was that there was always something new to learn and in the same way that’s what attracted me to the wine business.
In the mid-eighties I was working at the London Chop House and fell in love with wine. Everything about it fascinated me, from the wooden boxes to the majestic labels and foreign sounding names (I would always mispronounce). I was fortunate enough to work with a young Master Sommelier Madeline Triffon.
my Wine journey
I would spend all my money on wine and taste everything I could get my hands on. The London Chop House’s list was heavy French based, and I ended up cutting my teeth on Bordeaux. Like most vinophiles it would be years down the road before I would get deep into Burgundy, where my heart is today. Though, I will always love Bordeaux.
In the mid 90’s, I was working for Nino Cutraro (Owner of Club Taboo, Metro Music Café’s, Ultimate Sports Bars, Bellapiatti, Mare), and opened the hottest restaurant in Detroit called “Intermezzo”. The restaurant was Italian, and my wine list was dominated by high end California Cabernets and Super Tuscans. As GM I insisted on tasting everything before I put it on the list. One of my weekly highlights was having a line of wine reps waiting outside my door to taste their wines. I would taste anywhere from 10 – 40 wines that day and what I quickly learned was, to function and make good decisions, I had to spit.
welcome to the wine business
Wine was always a part of my life both in and outside of the restaurant. And by the end of the 90’s I had left the restaurant business to get into the wine business. It was a natural transition, I knew what wine buyers were looking for, I was once in their shoes and spoke their language. “Selling wine is understanding what people like, buying wine is understanding what sells.”
I spent the next 20 years, mostly On-premise and in fine wine shops and became a top selling rep for the largest wine distributor in Michigan, Great Lakes Wine & Spirits.
I’ve tasted more than 10,000 wines and represented hundreds of wineries and what I’ve learned is wine speaks in every language, it is music to the palate, it creates a mood, a feeling but most of all a memory.