Joel Butler

Denver CO was a great place to grow up in the 1950s and 60s, and attending a well integrated, top level high school(East High) strongly shaped my later viewpoints. My love of ancient history, archaeology and modern politics began there with a great teacher. College at Stanford, especially a year in Italy,as well as graduate school in Boulder developed my academic skills further, but also instigated a desire to learn more about wine, a field my family had been involved with for decades. I have spent the last forty seven years in the wine business in all capacities, most recently as educator, and now author. I began writing about wine in the mid-1970's, including some of the earliest reports on then unknown top California Pinot Noir producers, the revival of Chianti Classico and the opening of Dominus Estate I made wine in California as well for 25 years (pretty good, I might add!) Many wonderful experiences in many countries led me to attempt the Master of Wine (MW) program, and in 1990 I became one of the first two resident Americans to pass the MW Exam and be admitted to the Insitute in London. Along the way, travelling to most major wine-growing regions, being a global wine judge, writing about wine and its production have only increased my love for this beverage, its significance to our culture and to the daily pleasure of life. This book is a response to and a result of the affects the above factors have provided over the course of my life. I live in beautiful Seattle now, and had decided to write about wine, history and the numerous cultural interchanges between them for the foreseeable future. Then, the itch to be in the 'game' struck again, and with my business partner, I bought a wine merchant, World of Wines, in Redmond WA. Now, after four years, we are still running strong and you can check us out at www.worldofwinesonline.com and see what we have to offer. Meanwhile, I am continuing my writing periodically with reports and contributions to the respected INternational Wine Review (I-winereview.com) The archaeology of wine is still my passion and hope to work on the subject into the future.