- Doug Wilder
- Per Holmberg
- Elizabeth Grubel
- Abdi Humphries
- Philip Bohorfoush
- Neal Dessouky
- Gregg Stephenson
- Debra Knotek
- Neil Mechanic
- Margaret Fasone
- Tommy Svendberg
- Cyrille Hanson
- Laura Conway
- Amy Cameron
- Brett Burdette
- Chris Caughman
- Michael Greenfield
Doug Wilder's expertise as a boutique California wine buyer has developed over the past fifteen years by tasting up to three thousand wines each year. Doug's spirit of excellence, distinguished California wine palate, and dedication fuel his excitement for finding and introducing the newest and best in California wine. Partial to Syrah and Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, Doug's recently been drawn to Viognier and Roussanne from the Central Coast Appellation.
Prior to joining Vinfolio, Doug spent the last six years as the Senior Wine Specialist at Dean & Deluca Wine Hall in St. Helena. In addition to purchasing and sales, he wrote a monthly wine newsletter featuring many of his boutique California wine discoveries. His fifteen year evolution as a boutique California wine buyer also includes nine years as the Wine Buyer and Sales Manager at Cannery Wine Cellar in San Francisco.
Doug's commitment and ardor for California wine drive his pursuit of new brands and often unheard of winemakers. In addition to his acquisition and sales responsibilities, Doug tastes with the Connoisseurs' Guide to California Wines and has served as a guest panelist on the North Bay Business Journal's annual wine business forum.
Doug loves to say "living and working in Napa Valley is where the pebble meets the pond." Short of moving nearer to his second love, Single Malt Scotch, his heart belongs to California.
Born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden, Per became interested in epicurean pursuits at an early age through working in restaurant kitchens during school holidays. With his family's move to Paris in the mid-80's, Per became even more passionate about eating and drinking well.
When he moved to New York in the mid 1990's , he decided to follow his wine interests and in 1997 he joined the newly launched wine auction department of Morrell's. During his three years at Morrell's, Per managed 13 auctions where he worked as Cellar Manager and managed several sales such as sale of Maxim's wine cellar in New York. More recently, Per worked as a Wine Specialist for Christie's auction house in New York, where he continued to develop a keen understanding and appreciation of fine wine collecting, both for enjoyment and from an investment standpoint.
During his four years at Christie's, Per was credited with bringing Burgundy to the forefront of the global auction market. As Christie's lead wine specialist, he oversaw close to $15 million in consignments, from the legendary Doris Duke collection to the Lenoir Josey sale. He also traveled extensively for Christie's, visiting private cellars as well as managing tastings and wine talks, and appeared on television programs including CNBC's Street Signs and Martha Stewart Living.Per, who is fluent in Swedish, English and French, lives in New Canaan, Connecticut. Per has a bachelor's degree from the American University in Paris in Business Administration and Philosophy.
Though Elizabeth was born and raised here in the Bay Area, just a stone's throw away from the wine country, she was not introduced to wine until she was 18 and was a Rotary exchange student in the Rhone Valley.
From her first glass of Hermitage "La Chapelle" Elizabeth knew how she wanted to make wine her way in life. Since that first year in France, Elizabeth has focused on many different aspects of the wine industry. She spent her junior year of college in Montpellier, in the Languedoc-Roussillon. There she was fortunate to befriended a negociant of Languedoc wines and vineyard owner in Pommard and Puligny-Montrachet who took her to Burgundy to meet with his vingerons and sample some the fruits of their labors...several years of Pommard still in the barrels just waiting to be tasted.
With a degree in International Relations and French Literature from Emory University in Atlanta, she started working for a winery in Braselton, Georgia. At the winery she performed assorted tasks such as working the harvest and crush, conducting tours and tastings, and sales.
Eventually, she moved back to the Bay Area and began working for two wineries in the Napa Valley (Franciscan Estates and Domaine Carneros.) With each winery she gained knowledge of the different aspects of the wine business in production, sales, and marketing. This was followed by two years working as a wine broker in San Francisco, as well as for an importer and distributor before helping to start Dee Vine Wines. While managing Dee Vine Wines she travelled to Europe extensively to meet with winemakers, attend salons such as VinExpo, Vinisud, and the Mainzerweinbose and cultivate relationships with brokers and negociants. After over nine years at Dee Vine Wines she decided to join us at Vinfolio as the Director of Wine Buying.
When not reading one of her favorite French murder mysteries, she loves cooking, classical music, the opera, going to museums, and taking her miniature schnauzer, Pinot Noir, for long walks.
Abdi (pronounced Ab-die) came to Vinfolio from a tailspin jaunt at Dean & DeLuca as Director of Wine Sales where he developed D & D Wine, Llc. from the ground up in only 5 months. Along the way, Abdi tasted over 3,000 wines to develop the Dean & DeLuca Catalog, website, and sales team. His focus has always been on the customer and vendor, treating each and every relationship as he would with family.
Prior to D&D, Abdi led the Sales Management team at Bounty Hunter Rare Wine Company in Napa, driving a customer service group towards success while finishing his MBA at the University of Phoenix. Prior to that, he spent two years as Manager of Hospitality at Sebastiani and three years in Japan as the Regional Manager for Roy Yamaguchi and Nobu Matsuhisa.
Abdi has traveled to 26 countries worldwide during the past 12 years, visiting esteemed wine properties throughout Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the Western United States. Abdi resides with his wife and their three "4-legged" children in Napa, CA. He also serves as Vice Chair for the American Red Cross in Napa.
Phil Bohorfoush starting collecting wine in 1997 when he began studying viticulture and vinification in Napa Valley. His collection primarily includes Burgundy and Rhone.
Phil has more than 10 years of experience in the wine industry. Before joining Vinfolio, he was the head of sales, Burgundy buyer and special accounts buyer for The Wine Club, San Francisco's largest retailer. His wine and food expertise has appeared in The Wine Spectator, Hemispheres magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Before buying for the Wine Club, Phil was sommelier for Osteria del Circo in Manhattan (le Cirque 2000's sister restaurant), where he received two Awards of Excellence from The Wine Spectator. While in New York, he attended the International Wine Center and passed the Advanced Wine Course with honors.
While living in Napa Valley in the late '90s, he worked at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars and Tra Vigne restaurant. He passed the Sterling School of Service and Hospitality's Advanced Wine Course and received Sommelier certification from the Court of Master Sommeliers. Phil launched his career as an assistant beverage manager at the Four Seasons Olympic Hotel in Seattle.
He is an avid sailor and races in San Francisco's J-105 fleet.
Since his college years, wine has always been an unexplained passion of Neal's. The seed was perhaps planted upon drinking a bottle of 1990 La Conseillante from Pomerol in Bordeaux, or by an early interest in fine Belgian beer, a hobby which led him to his first entrepreneurial beverage industry position in marketing for a start-up New England microbrewery. He moved to San Francisco (via a ski-bum winter in Lake Tahoe) to pursue marketing and branding in the exploding Internet industry, but was inevitably drawn back to the beverage world by his immersion into the region's rich food and wine culture.
Neal consulted for several wine industry ventures before his interest in the world's fine and rare wines pointed him to a sales and buying position at The Wine Club in San Francisco. He moved on to become a Senior Sales Representative at Premier Cru, a wine importer and merchant on the other side of the Bay, where he advised some of the nation's most passionate and serious collectors on their buying and wine investment strategies.
Neal is an active member of several tasting groups and never misses an opportunity to hone his palate or feed his thirst for knowledge on the subject of wine. Bitten by the collecting bug as well, most of the world's great wine regions are represented in Neal's diverse collection. There is a particular focus on Barolo and Barbaresco, as well as wines from Burgundy, the Northern Rhone and Brunello di Montalcino.
Neal graduated from Colby College in Waterville, ME with degrees in philosophy and music. He holds a certificate degree with distinction in business administration from U.C. Berkeley and is a Certified Wine Specialist from the Society of Wine Educators. He is an avid skier, road and mountain-biker and also enjoys sailing, golf and photography.
Gregg's love affair with wine began almost 2 decades ago with a routinely innocent visit to the wine country with a group of friends. What he experienced, the wine, food, and beauty of the landscape gripped him and never let go. Soon he was making regular trips to the Napa and Sonoma Valley's, visiting the established and not-so established wineries, quickly learning to appreciate the incredible bounty of the area. He loved the wine experience so much in fact that he invited over 200 friends and family to experience the Wine Country by joining him to celebrate his wedding, rehearsal dinner, and day-after picnic at 3 different Napa wineries. Gregg soon turned his attention to European wines where he immersed himself in learning producers, regions, and varietals of the Old World. His wine collection continued to grow.
Gregg joined Vinfolio in 2006 after deciding it was time to follow his passion and work in an industry that he lives and breathes. Gregg's success comes from his strong customer service skills, which were essential in his 10 year career with Arena Exhibits, a company that he co-founded. He has passed the Level II Certified Sommelier Exam through the Court of Master Sommelier and is moving toward the Level III studies.
When he is not thinking or drinking wine you can find Gregg mountain bike riding in his backyard on Mount Tamalpais, road riding the back-roads of Marin or cooking and entertaining.
Debra Knotek first started to appreciate wine in her early 20s as a waitress at an upscale restaurant in Colorado. Her long and successful career in technology allowed her frequent trips to the Silicon Valley and thereby visits to the wine regions of California. On her first wine trip outside of the US, she traveled to Hunter Valley in Australia. Subsequent trips took her to wine regions around the globe including France, Italy, Argentina, Chile and Spain. In one trip to Italy, she participated in harvest and was directly involved with vinification decisions.
Having made her mark in technology, Debra decided to follow her passion and make wine her full time career. She got a job in sales for Classic Wine Imports, one of the top fine wine companies in the US representing over 6,000 wines, where she assisted top tier Boston restaurants with their wine lists, wine dinners and staff training. Additionally, by representing some of the top wineries in the world she gained one on one access to some of the best producers in the world.
She also accelerated her wine education. She attained the highest level of the WSET wine education program at Boston University where she studied under two Masters of Wine. She is currently studying for the Diploma level of WSET in London.
When not studying wine and working at Vinfolio, Debra enjoys hiking with her Corgis, traveling and hitting the slopes from time to time.
This transplanted New Yorker knew he was heading down "wine geekdom" by the tender young age of 21 while in college in San Diego. His introduction to wine came from working both front and back of house in several hotels and restaurants in San Diego. Although graduating with a B.A. in Public Administration- Urban Studies, Neil fueled his passion for food and wine further by accepting a head waiter and sommelier position with the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company in the Hawaiian Islands for both the Big Island and Maui properties. After six years at the Ritz, Neil moved back to the mainland choosing San Francisco as his home because it was the closest thing to his native New York with Napa and Sonoma right at his door step.
A 12 year veteran of the San Francisco Bay Area wine scene, Neil has managed and bought wines for several Bay Area wine retail and wine bar concepts. Until recently, he had spent six years manning the helm as Wine Director of Absinthe Brasserie and Arlequin Wine Merchant in the heart of San Francisco. His wine interests are over the map from the Old World classics to the new darlings of California and Southern Hemisphere. His love of food has made him a proponent of the Mediterranean wine regions of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal. His encyclopedic knowledge of wine combined with his unbridled enthusiasm makes him a welcome addition to the Vinfolio team.
Margaret first came to the Napa Valley when her sister moved there in the late 80's. Her first job in the wine industry was in the art department for Etched Images, the leading wine bottle etching company in Yountville. Margaret left after several years to help open the Cantinetta at Tra Vigne Restaurant in St. Helena, where her deep appreciation for fine wine was cultivated. She remained there until "V" Cellars, a boutique wine shop at Market 1870 in Yountville asked her to join their blossoming business. Margaret worked with them to develop an artful approach to presenting fine wines to customers who either visited the shop, web site or called seeking out some of the smaller more hand crafted wines from both Napa and beyond. During these early years, Margaret was fortunate to travel to other wine regions, both in the US and abroad, to further continue her education and love for fine wine and food.
Over the years, Margaret has nurtured relationships with many vineyard owners and winemakers in the key appellations of the U.S., many of which you will find here at Vinfolio. Margaret says, "I continue to strive to further educate myself - spending time with my many winemaking friends on my off hours, during harvest, and in the slower season, barrel tasting and doing "blending trials" for many of Napa's "Cult Favorites".
Raised just south of Oslo, Norway, Tommy Svendberg's interest in food and wine began at a young age. Tommy and his friends experimented with food and wine as a way to pass Norway's long winter nights. By the time he graduated from Royken Teknisk Skole, Tommy was ready to explore Europe. His trips to France, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Holland, Germany and England intensified his passion for food and wine.
In 1993, Tommy moved to France. After enjoying the relaxed lifestyle of the south of France for a year, he moved to Paris. Over the next four years, he immersed himself in French culture and cultivated his passion for food and wine by working in the culinary industry for CHR Consultants. He worked in a variety of positions, from bartender and corporate trainer to accountant, which allowed him to establish relationships with vendors and sales representatives from all over France.
In 1998, Tommy and his wife relocated to Chicago where he began working for Knightsbridge Wine Shoppe and Epicurean Center. This work gave him exposure to multiple aspects of the wine industry, including cellar management, purchasing, vendor management and corporate partnerships, event organization, and the opportunity to work with well known wine personalities.
Tommy is fluent in English, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, and French.
Cyrille's first summons to the world of wine occurred at the tender age of 6, thanks to 2 major influences - 1) the family business: wine retailer, Hi-Time Wine Cellars, and 2) a typical French mother. With that combination of factors guiding her formative years, her pursuit of all things vine is a given.
Growing up in a family of wine merchants gave Cyrille the unique chance to experience all that the retail wine industry has to offer. Over the last 25 years, her impressive range of experiences has included cellar management, purchasing, education, event organization, and editor-in-chief of a 44+ page monthly wine newsletter. She has also spent the last few years assisting her father with vintage cellar acquisitions and has a considerable understanding and appreciation of wine collecting.
She has indulged herself in all facets of the industry (brokering, importing, wine steward, cellar rat), but her leanings don't stop at the bottom of the bottle. She travels extensively throughout Europe, not only honing her oenological teeth, but also exploring the culinary and cultural realms of the countries she visits. For the last 17 years, she has used this unique mélange of knowledge to teach both neophytes and connoisseurs alike about the inextricable link of wine, food and culture. Hers is a style and method that emphasizes the unique qualities of all wines, not just the known entities. She challenges the natural order by bringing to light the underdogs of the wine world and shows that exceptional wine may be had from any country at any price point. QPR (quality price ratio) is a favorite mantra and she has an uncanny record of highlighting heretofore unknown wines that eventually garner the critics' future respect.
Cyrille's musings on wine have been published in various wine publications and she is currently pursuing the Masters of Wine certification. She speaks French and Italian, with a smattering of Slovenian.
Laura's love of wine originated from outstanding food and wine experiences in Europe and has been nurtured by the rich wine culture of San Francisco and Napa Valley. Although Laura appreciates a fine glass of Burgundy or Rhone, her palate is partial to vintage Champagne. In addition to collecting her favorite producers such as Krug, Salon, Bollinger and Pol Roger, she loves to discover small, hard-to-find producers.
At Vinfolio, Laura serves as the Online Content Manager for Vinfolio's wine reference database which includes over 50,000 unique wines. In this role, Laura manages all professional reviews, auction results, and customer data for existing VinCellar accounts.
Laura holds an Advanced Certificate from the Wine and Spirit Education Trust, WSET, has earned her Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW) diploma from the Society of Wine Educators and has passed the Introductory Sommelier Course from the Court of Master Sommeliers. She first became involved in the wine industry through attending wine classes at the Alliance Française and working the tasting room at Andretti Winery in Napa Valley.
Laura has a bachelor's degree from Bryn Mawr College in Comparative Literature and French, with a minor in Music. She obtained her Master of Arts degree in French at the University of California, Irvine. In addition to being fluent in French, Laura is conversant in Spanish and Italian. Her favorite hobbies include long distance running, sailing, and classical piano.
Stomping grapes in her Fresno backyard as a kid and constantly making fun of her grape-growing "farmer" father, Amy never imagined she'd take a wine-related career path. Her circuitous route to the industry began with a move from Fresno to UC Berkeley for college, where she majored in Political Science, then on to graduate school to study International Relations. Six years of teaching, at every possible grade and age level, followed, keeping her firmly planted in the Bay Area and never more than an hour away from wine tasting. After stumbling upon "industrial winemaking" in the middle of Berkeley, Amy began working for a small production label, and while getting completely hooked on the juice, realized that winemaking is actually a euphemism for "cleaning everything, repeatedly".
Her California roots make Amy a champion of her great state's wines, and she enjoys exploring new and small-production outfits, especially those making Pinot Noir. She has also branched out, travelling to France to look at the dirt and rocks, and to sample the wines of Champagne, Alsace, and Burgundy. She looks forward to continuing to pursue the wines of the world, especially through travel, but has also taken wine chemistry and varietal seminars at UC Davis. A lover of history, Amy's ultimate fascination with wine lies in every bottle's unique capability to tell a story: of people and places, of climate and season, of mistakes and lucky breaks, and occasional pure genius.
Brett was introduced to viticulture growing up in Illinois from his father, who toyed with his own small vineyard. Influenced by his father's hobby and his own scientific mind, he was led to a degree in Chemistry.
That knowledge on the molecular level elevated his food and wine interests, and with the memories of the days when he stood on a kitchen chair over the sink helping his great-grandmother churn butter, Brett left the Midwest for a world of travel, amassing experience in the kitchens of Chicago, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. From the shadows of the rear kitchen to the limelight of being a private chef, Brett has spent more than 12 years creating food and wine pairings.
Brett graduated top of his class at the California Culinary Academy in S.F., after which he was accepted as Poissonier for Operakallaren (the Opera House), then a Michelin 2-Star restaurant in Stockholm. Beyond cooking for the Royal Family, Brett was part of the crew that brought the Operakallaren from Michelin 2 to 3-Star...the highest achievement in food, wine, and service in the restaurant world.
He has backpacked throughout France and Italy's wine regions, and also enjoys acrylic painting and playing acoustic guitar.
A native Californian, Chris' interest in travel and European culture was sparked during a high school visit to France. Matriculating to the University of San Francisco on a merit scholarship, Chris graduated cum laude in three and a half years with a degree in Psychology and Business. While at USF he studied abroad at University College Dublin, where he developed a keen interest in esoteric Belgian ales and West Coast microbrews.
As a college student, Chris was asked to help a friend's mother complete an inventory project at a specialty wine shop in the Russian Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. The one time project developed into a part-time job where Chris was introduced to the world of wine retail by working every Sunday at the Jug Shop in San Francisco. This experience uncovered a passion for wine and earned him a role on Vinfolio's warehouse team as an Associate Wine Specialist inventorying wine for customer storage and inspecting wine from cellar acquisitions. Shortly after joining Vinfolio, Chris pursued further education and earned his Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW) diploma from the Society of Wine Educators. He now enjoys life buying fine and rare wine from private collections on the cellar acquisitions team.
In addition to his passion for wine, Chris also revels in a passion for baseball. Growing up playing baseball and an avid Bay Area sports fan, Chris claimed a bit of notoriety when he caught Barry Bonds' homerun ball number 664 in April, 2004. Chris is also a discerning beer aficionado who experiments with crafting his own personal version of classic ales and lagers that delight both friends and family.
A native of Southern California, Mike's love of wine developed through its interplay with food. After taking a "semester" off from college that would last 13 years, he landed in the Bay Area and quickly began to hone his cooking skills in a number of restaurants. During the next several years working as a chef in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles Mike's interest in the wonders of fermented grape juice took off as his focus on food naturally drew him to its obvious affinity with wine. Whereas he initially viewed wine as a mere accompaniment to food, he soon began to discover and appreciate that wine could indeed be the centerpiece of a great meal.
In 2001, Mike's finally returned to school. After graduating from UCLA summa cum laude (BA Geography and Environmental Studies), he then earned his law degree at the University of Colorado. A master of keeping his priorities in check, his time in law school was somewhat evenly divided between studying law and continuing his education in wine. Following a steady regimen of both tasting and reading about wine, he absorbed all the wine and information he could get his hands on. He also hosted a series of wine tasting events for his classmates. After being admitted to practice law, Mike headed back to the Bay Area, ultimately finding that the call to wine was stronger than the call of the law.
Beyond wine, Mike is a person of many interests. A lover of the outdoors and a one-time Ranger at Sequoia National Park, he is an avid rock climber who also enjoys hiking, backpacking, snowboarding, surfing, running, and biking just to name a few. His more cerebral pursuits include painting and reading a wide variety of literature.