About Her

I'm McKenzie Phelan and I do not flatter myself a wine expert in any way. I am but a blossoming [and enthusiastic] novice.

However, once you get started tasting, smelling and learning about wine, it's hard to stop. The more you learn, the more your interest is fed and then one day, a true wine expert advises you to start a blog as a means of better reflecting on your experiences of drinking wine. That's exactly what happened to me, and here I am, following his advice, one bottle at a time.

I grew up in northern California in the Sierra Nevada foothills, not too far from some great viticulture regions. However, it was not until I studied abroad in France for a year at the age of 17 that wine really caught my interest. I certainly cannot say that I had an immediate desire to learn about terroir or AOCs, however, I knew then that I really really liked drinking wine. I not only liked the smells and flavors of wine, I particularly appreciated the atmospheres in which wine is drunk- friends, new or old, gathered around tables, enjoying food and good conversation.

I came home from France a new woman [girl?] and my appreciation of wine, food and their milieus grew. I worked in cheese shops, farmer's markets, bakeries, restaurants and wineries, all while studying Foreign Languages and Environmental Studies. Food and wine proved to be the perfect intersection of these two fields of study and while in college, I got really lucky and was able to use grant funds to return to France to do research. The first time I went, I participated in a culinary tour of Paris and Aix-en-Provence where I explored French culinary traditions and the legacy that makes French cuisine so venerated to this day.

The second grant took me back to Paris, only this time to research the notion of terroir and the 'natural wine movement' in France and allied regions. I interviewed dozens of influential vintners, wine bar owners, movie directors and the former editor of an important wine publication. While I almost felt like an impostor among all of these dedicated individuals who have changed the industry, I learned so much. Particularly that the wine industry is one where passion, precision, tradition, innovation and sometimes magic collide and that I needed to be a part of it.

So, that leads me to where I am now: living in Portland, Oregon (having returned from Spain where I studied and traveled for half a year) working a side gig at a dashing little wine shop in NE and completely saturated in an ambient enthusiasm for wine.  Quelle chance, non?