The Portland Wine Bar & Winery

I began my journey in wine in 2006 through cooking, pairing great meals with wine from all over the world while living in Los Angeles, my last duty station after 11 years in the Air Force as a pilot, engineer and program manager. After many trips to Napa and Sonoma, I soon discovered Oregon Pinot noir. I attended enology and viticulture school in Salem, Oregon, at the Northwest Wine Studies Center in the heart of the Willamette Valley from 2008 to 2009. I can say that they were two of the best years of my life. One made wine from the very grapes one took care of. My classmates were not only passionate about wine, but were on their second or third careers, retired, wanted to start their own winery and vineyard or all of the above. I founded the winery under Bodhichitta Winery while in wine school in the Fall of 2008, making my first batch of Oregon Pinot noir. And it was lovely, subtle and nuanced. Bodhichitta is a Sanskrit word that means “to give of yourself to others.” I donated the profits of this label to charity.