Wine is Bottled Poetry ….. a cliché perhaps. And sometimes, wine can be anything but bottled poetry, more like a bad nursery rhyme, a twisted limerick or even blank verse. But at its best, it is indeed just that – pure poetry. In this blog, I will attempt to avoid sounding like a bad nursery rhyme, but hope that any poetry I find in the bottle will find some expression on this blog.

A little about me.  I had my first memorable wine experience at the age of 9, when I was camping with my family right on the beach at Lido di Jeselo, just across the way from Venice.  The Adriatic Sea lapped that beach and its abundant salt allowed me to take my very first unaided swim.  My parents took good advantage of the plethora of local wines, buying what at the time looked like huge ‘wickered’ bottles of red wine, presumably Chianti, which they would mete out to the kids (it was Italy, after all!) with a generous whoosh of seltzer water… red wine spritzers (mostly spritz!), a little sandy, a little salty, a little fruity, a lot acidic and delicious.

Fast forward, and I discovered the Central Coast and Paso Robles just a few hours north of my LA home base … and I fell in the love with those rolling hills dotted with oaks and vines…. and their big juicy fermented crops.  And so, I became involved with creating a local wine festival in Paso Robles which grew and grew into international renown. Inspired by the people I met, especially the passionate, artisan winemakers, and wanting to expand my palate and wine horizons, I began the rigors of a wine education and today hold the advanced Diploma in Wine and Spirits from WSET as well as the French Wine Scholar certification from the French Wine Society and am teaching WSET courses in Paso Robles while continuing my wine education. The more you know about wine, the more there is yet to learn …. and this is where we meet.

BottlePoet is a French Wine Scholar (FWS), holds a Diploma in Wine and Spirits from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust, is a certified wine educator and teaches WSET L1, L2, & 3 in Paso Robles..