Today I am a biodynamic winegrower in Oregon's Applegate Valley, but I was born and raised in Harvard, Illinois, a land of Manhattans, Pabst beer and Friday-night fish fries — wine was unknown. However, during a college semester spent studying in Europe I discovered fine wine and food.

After graduating from college, I worked as a photojournalist and food and wine writer for four years before my passion for food and wine overwhelmed my sense of reality. In 1980, I joined Direct Import Wine Company, where I assembled an elite portfolio of estate wines in the Chicago market. In 1996 the company was devoured by Paterno Imports (who later fed it to Southern Wine and Spirits), but I remained at Direct as president until 1999, when I left in a fit of sanity prompted by an outburst of ethics.

In 2000 I left to pursue an education in wine production. I spent the next three years happily working in Italy, where I studied winemaking and worked in the cellars of some of Italy’s most elite wine estates in Barolo and Barbaresco. Upon returning to the United States in 2004, I became President of Anne Amie Vineyards, previously known as Chateau Benoit. Over the next several years, I totally revolutionized the winemaking and marketing. In 2009 I moved to Napa Valley and did the same for Cornerstone Cellars.

Now I am general manager of Troon Vineyard, fomenting another revolution in the beautiful Applegate Valley of southern Oregon. Surrounded by the Siskiyou Mountains, we are making natural wines and are now Demeter Biodynamic® and Regenerative Organic Gold Certified® both in the vineyard and the cellar. I am currently president of both the Applegate Valley Vintners Association and the Rhone Rangers and serve on the Board of Directors of the Oregon Winegrowers Association and the Rogue Valley Vintners. I have served on the Board of Directors of the Howell Mountain Growers Association and on the Napa Valley Vintners Association Marketing Committee, of which I also served as chairman.

My single-minded goal is to make great wine and farm like the world depends on it.