Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Riverside, California, near the desert. Riverside was the birthplace of the citrus industry which began in 1873 when the first navel orange trees were imported from Brazil.On to college in Claremont, not far from Riverside. Beeline to the Napa Valley from there with a short detour to Davis to study winemaking.

What was the first time you remember drinking wine?
When we turned 14, the 2 eldest cousins were allowed to have a glass of wine with Thanksgiving dinner. I remember choking it down so as to maximize cool.

When did you start to like wine?
On a whim I took a wine appreciation course when I was a sophomore at Pomona College in the spring of 1973. I was studying biology at the time and fell in love with wine for all the usual reasons (it makes food taste better and food makes it taste better, it bring people together), but also because it is alive. The result of a series of living systems, it is a source of endless fascination for me. In a very real way, I'm still studying biology to this day.