It began with a simple suspicion: the table still matters.

I studied psychology, spent time teaching in Korea, and eventually found my way into the wine world, where I spent years learning how history, place, taste, hospitality, and people can meet in a glass.

Along the way I kept returning to cooking, fire, writing, and bringing people together. Those interests did not look like one project at first. Over time they began to converge around the same question: what happens when we put real intention into the spaces where people meet?

Wine With Pete grew out of that question. The dinners, essays, fire gatherings, recipes, and experiments are all different ways of working on the same thing.