My interest in wine began after I moved from my hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan to Massachusetts for a Master of Fine Arts program. I decided to pick up a summer job at a wine shop, stocking shelves and working behind a cheese counter and I became fascinated by learning about wine. This ‘summer job’ ended up lasting several years and when I wasn’t creating photographic installations, video editing, laser cutting, and teaching undergrad sculpture classes, I was listening to wine podcasts, paging through the World Atlas of Wine, and hosting late night tastings in my campus art studio.

When my program ended, I found myself in upstate NY looking to take a break from academia and foster my independent wine study. Through a combination of luck and hard work I went from bartending at a natural wine bar to becoming the wine director of a collection of businesses. Having had the opportunity to purchase wines from wonderful importers such as David Bowler, it’s exciting to be on the other side of things!