This consignor’s career in wine started at the "Big Y" wine store in Northampton, MA as he was finishing his degree at UMass Amherst. Diploma in hand, he worked as a Sommelier and began touring Europe as a wine buyer for the Big Y. After touring Champagne, Alsace, Burgundy & the Rhone with dinners in Michelin starred restaurants and wine tastings directly from the Grand Cru barrels, he was hired as a Stagiaire to the winemaker at Domaine Jacques Prieur for the 1996 vintage. That turned into a job at Hamilton Russell Estates in South Africa as an Assistant Winemaker for the 1997 vintage. These wines are the product of many of those days and most were purchased from the wineries directly. His family has cellars in the Jura, near St Emilion, and in his home in Cabbagetown. All his wines have been impeccably cellared with no risk of temperature abuse. Older vintages were shipped in a temperature-controlled container inside big styrofoam boxes in 1999 when he moved from France to Canada. They've been in the Toronto cellar ever since. He needs to downsize, hence this tendering to auction.