In December of 2005, I walked into Stuart Cellars looking for a job. At the register, I spoke to a petite English woman who looked me up and down. Before she started in with the fifty questions I blanked out for a second. The one question that remains fresh in my mind to this day is, “what do you know about wine?” Standing there nervously, I felt a bead of sweat trickle down the side of my face as I search for the perfect response. Then it hit me as the light flickered on in my mind. I calmly spoke through my crooked smile and said, “I know what I like to drink” (what they didn’t know is that I only drank Muscat at the time). Feeling satisfied with my quick reply, I stood there filled with confidence waiting for her reaction. She looked up at me, speaking so eloquently in her native tongue, that I found myself tantalized by her voice. The last few words I heard her say to me, as snapped back to reality, “show up to work this Saturday, and if you can make it through the day, the job is yours“.

Within a week, I had memorized the menu and listened to what the customers were saying about the wines. I used to laugh when people would tell me how knowledgeable I sounded. Three weeks later, I went from drinking Muscat, to dry whites and then to red. Quickly my palate began to mature and my conversations with the customers went from creative thinking to personal experience.

Working at the winery fiercely built up my self-confidence to a level of extreme cockiness that fit in perfect with my dry sarcastic personality. I know my personality is not for everyone, so I tried very hard to think before I spoke. I must of done okay, because some how I have managed to stay employed at the winery.

I had the best job in the world. Think about it for a second, I was getting paid to talk, I getting paid to pour wine, I getting paid to educate people, and I getting paid to experience wine without actually drinking! I have a game that I play when pouring wine, it’s called “guess your palate”. I can usually figure out a persons palate after three pours of wine. Yes, it is a big ego boost for me, but it sells wine! After all that’s why I was there, to sell lots of wine. I continued to work to feed my new love for wine and to support my new wine habit.

I took pride in my work and often would treat the winery as my own. I used to love it when people would come in and ask if I was Marshall, after they looked at the picture in the brochure. Looking at them seriously for a moment I would smile and say, “I look more attractive than that guy and I have more hair.” Then I would laugh and they would too most of the time. Sorry Marshall, but you know deep down inside you like my dry personality and secretly you want to be more like me. I won’t tell anyone, promise. After all Marshall, everyone wants to be like Mike! My time spent at Stuart Cellars taught me a lot about wine and I had some of the best times of my life there.