“What makes a wine really interesting, is what cannot be controlled. I am looking for a spontaneous expression of nature, without my interference.”

I grew up in Florida, just outside of Orlando, surrounded by groves of flame grapefruit and tangerines. My mother trained and worked with horses and I have many fond memories of being on horseback, riding through the groves and grabbing oranges right off the tree. Those early years among the citrus trees and our family's horses instilled a connection to agricultural rhythms that would later influence my approach to wine.

My career began very far from the world of winemaking. I went to college at Western Kentucky University and studied Photojournalism. I started taking commissioned projects overseas, mostly in East Africa, while still in school and worked with many NGOs and Non-Profit advocacy groups. I spent the last few years of college and the first few years after documenting everything from formerly abducted child soldiers in northern Uganda to victims of the Sudanese civil war. I worked on photo essays and short films that highlighted the spider web of affects that war has on populations. This work was intense and heavy and eventually took both a physical and emotional toll that rendered the career path unsustainable for me. On one of my last trips I contracted a severe parasitic illness that nearly killed me and this, in combination with the emotional challenges, led me to seek a different path. 

After deciding to take a break from photojournalism as a career, I needed a job. I found work at Apple and spent the next few years working in technology in California and eventually became a developer and engineer. The concrete jungle that is Los Angeles and the heavy traffic that goes with it led me to search for greener pastures and in 2015 I moved to Oregon and started a new journey. I still was a couple years away from discovering the magic of the wine world, but I was getting closer.

On a vacation in Tuscany, I discovered wine for the first time. Having never grown up around vineyards or wine culture, these evenings spent with a bottle of Chianti Classico revealed something entirely new. These moments felt healing, restorative, and fascinated me deeply. They united my interests in geology, travel, and cultural connection in ways I hadn't imagined possible.

After returning to Portland, I was struck by the revelation that hundreds of wineries existed within driving distance. Wine thoroughly captured my imagination, and I began spending every free weekend exploring these landscapes and cellars. In 2018, I immersed myself fully into wine. In the years since, I've worked in both retail and sourcing, visiting over 100 respected domaines across Burgundy, Piedmont, Champagne, the Loire, and the Rhône. These journeys through cellars, alongside importers and winemakers, provided an education no formal training could replicate. I also had the opportunity to work alongside Chris Dixon at Twill Cellars for five formative harvests. I established Meliora in 2023, inspired by producers like Domaine Michel LaFarge and guided by a simple truth: “It is the things I can't control that I'm most interested in” a principle that informs every decision from vineyard to bottle.