Jason Hunter Certified Sommelier Founder

I started my career of service at age 12, ladling clam chowder at clambakes across the South Shore of Massachusetts. After college, I gleefully got sucked into the restaurant industry and never got out despite two graduate degrees and a few, feeble attempts at extrication.

In 2006, I landed in Vail Valley, started serving tables at The Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch and unwittingly began directing my career toward wine.

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In 2008, I achieved the title of Certified Sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers. Four years later, after learning the ropes from some extremely talented colleagues, I began running the Beverage program at Wolfgang Puck Spago at The Ritz.

From 2011 to 2017, I focussed on developing an award-winning wine list supported by world-class service. During the off-season, I traveled to wine-growing regions throughout Europe and the US to better understand how the incredible wines I was serving every night were made.

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In 2017, Kristin, my wife and Certified Sommelier, got a job making wine in the Willamette Valley, so that’s where we went. I started working with a local wine wholesaler and spent the next three years learning that side of the trade.

Living in the Willamette Valley and working with local producers provided us an amazing opportunity to get to know the geography, the wines and the people that make them.

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November 2019, Kristin and I had our first child, Callahan. A few months later, our world shifted dramatically as it did for everyone else. Our perspectives have been challenged and our priorities have evolved. We decided we miss the mountains and Cal needs to learn how to ski!

In 2021, we decided to return to the Vail Valley to bring wine country experiences from around the world to the Colorado Rockies.