Mike grew up in Pittsburgh (Go 'Stillers!) and really fell in love with wine while attending Arizona State University. "We'd take road trips to Santa Barbara -- mostly to drink free wine at the tastings, but I ended up falling in love with wine country as a result."

Mike's first job out of college was working for Westin Hotels. He was put in charge of audting of all the wine purchases made and had the fortune of attending the corporation's in-house sommelier program. 10 years later, and most of that spent in software design, he reached a turning point in his career. "I simply didn't enjoy my career. I was paid well enough, but something kept drawing me back to wine. Knowing nothing about growing grapes, and lacking likely prerequisites like land, vines, farming experience, etc., I felt like owning a wine bar was the next best thing to being a winemaker. I'd still like to one day own a vineyard, but for right now, there's no place I'd rather be." Mike's favorite wines are the wines of the Rhone Valley in France. Mike enjoys skiing and playing guitar while not drinking wine.