Greetings; About the name

Hi! Thanks for reading. I'm Mike. This is weird. Blogging and such. So.

Greetings! A little about me: Three years ago I started working in a really good little restaurant with a world-class wine program. I'd never worked in a restaurant before; I got the job on an unknown proportion of chutzpa and the fact that I'd studied wine at BU for a year. I worked there for two-and-a-half years and had a great time. In that time I had the opportunity to wear several different metaphorical hats (real hats not being allowed on the floor) including Wine Manager and General Manager. However, my favorite role was that of Staff Wine Educator. For two years, I taught a weekly class to our great service staff about wine: regions, making, grapes, tasting, pairing. For those who have not had the experience of teaching (what are you waiting for?), it is a universal truth that one learns material much more completely when one is preparing to teach it. So, between wine class, frequent tastings with cool sales guys, and interaction with the kitchen and guests of the restaurant, I learned some stuff about wine and, as I have already mentioned, had a great time.
I moved on from the restaurant biz in search of a gig that would offer a schedule that was a tad more compatible with that of my family, but still feel very connected to the wine world. It was suggested to me that blogging about wine would be a good way to maintain that connection, and here we are! Therefore, this blog is dedicated to David, whose idea it was in the first place.

I recently had a great vacation in California. One of the really special things we got to do was drink some wine with Bill Cadman, owner and winemaker of Tulocay Winery. He's hilarious, and his wine is killer, but that's the next entry. He was asking Rebecca and I what we do. I told him that I was on the precipice, though I did not use the word "precipice" at the time, of a new career path in the Jewish community. He said: "klezmer and cabernet!" And there you have it.

Cheers!