In this Episode, Karen Wetzel speaks with Michael Cerio, VP of Operations for Distinguished Vineyards & Wine Partners. 
Michael will share his experience and knowledge of the wine industry from a “back of the house” perspective and talk about the many jobs that fall under this umbrella.
Michael will close out the interview with actionable insights to follow this path to enter the wine world and what is it takes to land a job.



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SHOW NOTES:
Karen Wetzel: Today, I'll talk to Michael Cerio, vice president of operations for distinguished vineyards and wine partners. Michael will share his experience and knowledge of the wine industry from a back-of-the-house perspective and talk about the many wine jobs that fall under this umbrella. Be sure to stay tuned until the end when Michael we'll close out the interview with actionable.
Karen Wetzel: To follow this path to enter the world of wine and what it takes to land the job. And now, let's get to our interview.
Karen Wetzel: welcome, Michael. Thanks for joining me today. Could you please tell our audience who you are and what exactly do you do in the wine industry? I'd
Michael Cerio: be happy to thank you, Karen. And thanks for having me on this morning. I really appreciate the opportunity. So my name is Michael. And I'm the vice president of operations for distinguished vineyards and wine partners.
Michael Cerio: And I've been working for this company for about four months. Yeah.
Karen Wetzel: One thing I wanted to ask you before we get into your stories so that people know who distinguished vineyards are. So you're a supplier. You have a catalog of wineries that the company represents. Could you give us a couple of names that people might know of?
Karen Wetzel: Some of the brands you
Michael Cerio: represent? Sure. I'd be happy to. We'd like to say that we represent a collection of. Wineries from prestigious wine regions around the world is the tagline. So some of the wineries that the names that may be familiar to your listeners would be Markham and Saint Alena across the, and Sonoma.
Michael Cerio: We also own the Argyle winery up in Oregon. And then some of the other brands that we represent are dough wines, as well as Texas. From New
Karen Wetzel: Zealand. Oh, that's great. Well, I was just at Markham. I did a little visit there with some friends the other day, and it was wonderful. And actually, at Danette valley wine academy, we use the textbook Cabernet as one of the wines in the wine kits we send out for our WSET courses.
Karen Wetzel: So I'm very familiar with some of your brands, so that. Let's start off at the beginning. Really? How did you get into the wine industry? What's your story of your wine journey, I guess, of your white career?
Michael Cerio: So I did not intend to get into the wine industry. When I first got out of college back in the nineties, I really didn't have any clear idea about what it was.
Michael Cerio: I wanted to do the economy wasn't that great at the time. And so I jumped into some restaurant work, doing a little bit of substitute teaching, even considered law school at that time. And it fell into completely by accident—the commercial baking.
Karen Wetzel: From lawyer to baker,
Michael Cerio: I've got a diverse set of interests, I guess you could say.
Michael Cerio: So. Yeah. I just fell into this role working for a company that was at the t...