Author, wine-lover, raconteur, dog-lover and rock'n'roller. I was born in New York City, USA before my family decided to relocate to UK when I was two. I attended boarding school as many other English kids did and occassionally would manage to sneak a sip of wine from the local pub, junior common room or indeed Sunday Church sermons when brave enough.The highlife of school was always the seldom weekends when we were allowed home. My Father had always held a passion for fine French wine and on occasion would hand me two glasses each containing a thimble of wine and would ask of me not of which of the two wines I preferred, but rather the difference of taste and nuances between each of the scrawny drops. At this time of my life music, especially punk rock had been the everything to me- I knew every band, every song, every member, dates of recordings, obscure past tour dates and collected, played and saw as much about rock'n'roll as I could possibly ingest. Ask me the second venue the Sex Pistols had played at or the release date of the Dead Boys second album and I was right there. My brain had somehow figured out a way to store or compartmentalise minute, mostly useless facts. By the time I was eighteen and had really caught the 'wine bug' and I soon figured out that I could transfer this minor talent towards my developing love of wine. Chateaux, vintages, regions, winemakers and above all the recall of taste started to share a place next to name of Black Flag's second vocalist. Soon I had developed a pretty good palate- or at the least I had begun to understand what wines I liked and why Eventually I was starting to discern between the flavours of the multitude of grape varietals the world had to offer. But alas my passion had to be restrained after I returned to school in the United States (the legal drinking age being 21). I was also a keen oil painter and was accepted to The School Of The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston before attending Tufts University to complete my degree in Art. After waving farewell to Boston eight years later I returned to London and began writing books on rock'n'roll bands that I loved- Nirvana, Courtney Love, Suede, The Manic Street Preachers to name a few, but the Ol 'wine bug' never left me and soon I began studies at the WSET or better known as the Wine and Spirit Education Trust which is the organisation or school responsible behind the highly lauded Master Of Wine program. I also then officially joined 'the wine trade' working for well known companies such as John Armit, Fuller, Smith and Turner and various others- buying, selling, tasting or promoting. I decided after 10 years it was time to start my own company named Casevalue.com selling wine and Champagne to corporate clients. My main pleasure and interest within the company quickly became focused on the visiting and subsequent learning about the various wine regions spread across the World when I would promote the company and the wines we carried to our clients. Soon I began noticing an emerging trend of well known personalities that had joined the wine-world as a second profession and some taking this complicated craft very seriously and making great, even World -class wines. What was the reasoning behind their choice to became involved with creating as mentioned such a a complicated and risky product? This was the reasoning behind the creation of the new book 'Celebrity Winemakers' This is the first in a series of five and is only the beginning -as currently there has been a huge explosion in this field with many every month seeming to be joining the ranks. I only wanted to include those personalities who actually were in someway really involved with the winemaking process and not just keen to slap a label with there name on the bottle. I also didn't want the book to be full of scores and technical data-I just wanted to relay a fun journey that everyone could enjoy, learn a little about wine and get to know some of the well- known faces behind the juice being produced. I hope you enjoy the book. I currently live in London, with my beautiful Polish girlfriend Aneta and my pride and joy Lily- a very cool two year old Parson Jack Russell dog