I often joke that I’m a nerd with a drinking habit. It’s kinda true. The history of alcohol satiates pretty much all the facets of my curiosity—the core of my liberal arts mind.

Geology, geography, economics, war, the ebbs and flows of trends, gardening—nothing is off limits. Each beverage, each tipple, each drop of alcohol that I present, whether it be at a staff training or in a private tasting, I seek to place into a broader context. Not just what’s in the glass, but perhaps more importantly, why it exists at all.

I’ve obtained some certifications and credentials in beer, wine, and spirits and have had the opportunity to lead tastings running the gamut from mezcal to German lagers to the wines of the Late Bronze Age Collapse to Irish whisky to the history of gin to… not sake though, nope, haven’t done that one. Sake just isn’t my thing.

Beyond the rim of every glass is a story: of place, of people, of conflict and celebration, of scarcity and excess. It’s the spot where soil and society meet, and it’s in that intersection where you’ll find me too.