Somm-antic Drift
In 1991 Peter Granoff was the 15th American to earn the coveted title Master Sommelier, and is one of the 19 Americans to date that have earned the Krug Champagne Cup by passing all three parts of the exam on the first attempt. He is active today as an examiner and lecturer for the Court of Master Sommeliers Introductory, Advanced and Masters level programs. In 1991 Peter also received the James Beard Foundation Sommelier of the year Award.
In January of 1995 Peter and Robert Olson, a software engineer, launched Virtual Vineyards, an ecommerce pioneer and the first US entity to sell wine on the Internet. Virtual Vineyards was the subject of a Harvard Business School Case Study, and was cited in numerous business and e-commerce marketing journals & texts as a pioneer during that heady (headless?) era.
Prior to Virtual Vineyards Peter spent 25 years in the hospitality industry in the US, France & Switzerland. He is active as a speaker, panelist, judge, and educator in numerous wine consumer and wine industry settings, and has presented at professional wine and e-commerce conferences at Harvard, Wharton, Rhodes, and UC Berkeley, and as far away as Switzerland, France, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
Today Peter is co-proprietor of Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant in San Francisco, Oxbow Cheese & Wine Merchant in Napa, California, Mission Bay Wine & Cheese and Mission Bay Wine Bar @ Thrive City, both in San Francisco.
www.petergranoff.com