Harriss King was transformed in the early 70's from beer-drinking grad student to wine enthusiast by a mystical and religious wine experience -- a Margaux supplied by his mentor and hero, G. Ketner. The passion was magnified by a three-year stay on the East Coast during a period when fine Bordeaux was still affordable and one could drink the occasional Montrachet or La Tache without mortgaging one's house. The wine lust reached preposterous levels in the mid 80's with a brief stint as office-mate of fellow Bork Pat Van Munn, during which they spent their entire children's college funds on '82 and '83 classified Bordeaux. With age and maturity, reason has returned in the form of an obsession with bone-jarring Zinfandels. Harriss can be reached at harriss@winebork.com.
Pat Van Munn has dedicated the last 20 years to refining his wine-sensitive palate, beginning when he shared an office with Harriss who introduced him to the power of the 1982-83 Bourdeauxs. Due to this influence, Pat had an underground cellar installed on his "estate" to contain his best purchases. As Pat's taste developed, he eventually reached the point where he "sold off" his considerable remaining library cabs to make room for the zinfandels of the '90's. Pat's email is pvm@winebork.com.
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Charter WineBork #3, Paul Houghton, legendary pilot and mountain man, has a palate capable of 0.001 point resolution. This level of discrimination is reflected in the almost imperceptible differences he applies to the word "like" in the statement "I-I-I-I-I LIKE it!" Known to fly off at a moment's notice to vineyards around the country to catalog the nuances in individual grape vines, his airplane is the only Mooney run exclusively on the fumes from empty Martinelli Jackass Hill Zinfandel bottles. Paul's email is paul@winebork.com.
Mark Alguard. Mark is the quintessential WineBork, in that the average "aging" time in his cellar is a mere 5.65 days. However, this is ameliorated by the fact that he has never been known to buy a wine that requires cellaring anyway. Fortunately he still has an adequate supply of "friends" with more long-sighted inventories. Although Mark resigned his lucrative "high-tech" position in Silicon Valley to dedicate his considerable talents to building these pages for your benefit, recent market corrections have thrown him back into the fray. Mark, who is available for web-page consulting services, can be reached at mark@winebork.com or see his web page.
Anna Stockel. Quiet and unassuming, Anna can still be coaxed to utter the occasional mildly-worded opinion about a wine (example: "These morons should be publicly disemboweled for putting this stuff on the market!"). Some say, in fact, that Anna is the true gem of the group. Certainly we all agree that her intrinsically shy nature can be overcome only in moments of supreme emotion, such as when sipping a mind-altering Zin or Cab with the density of nuclear matter. We consider ourselves graced by the subtlety of her experienced palate, at least when her mind is properly focused on wine and not on minor matters such as winning single-handed trans-Pacific yacht races or successfully managing her startup IT business through its birthing pains.
anna@winebork.com or visit http://www.saillinks.com.
