BOARD OF MANAGERS

Rob Hill
PAST PRESIDENT / CO-FOUNDER
           

Hi, I’m Rob Hill, and as one of the founding members of Boston Uncorked I would like to welcome you to this website and to this club. Here’s a little about me and how I got here. I grew up in Connecticut and I moved to Boston in January 2002 from Long Beach, CA, where I lived for nearly 16 years after graduating from The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. I can attribute my interest in wine to several events spanning multiple years.

It all began on a day-trip with a group of friends and new acquaintances back in 1992 to Temecula, a rapidly growing town between Los Angeles and San Diego that has a burgeoning wine industry, where I got my first real exposure to the enjoyment that is typically associated with wine tasting while among friends. This was a very fun-filled day with lots of laughs and smiles, riding in a limo going from vineyard to vineyard, and learning something new in the process. Suffice it to say, having the designated limo driver and with each of us tasting and purchasing bottles of wine along the way, we all got a little “sideways” that day! I have a fond memory of having a great time while learning and being exposed to something (wine) that was completely new to me.

For some people, their interest in wine may have been sparked from a specific life event such as a special dinner where wine was served, or some other occasion where they experienced what was, for them, a particularly great tasting wine. For me this event took place in 1995 at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse on the Harbor in San Diego. Someone at the table ordered a bottle of ’94 Frog’s Leap Chardonnay Carneros. The scene encompassed great people, an awesome steak and, yes, a cool white wine - a Napa Valley California Chardonnay with an oaky, buttery flavor that seemed to complement the sizzling hot grilled steak - and from that night on California Chardonnays have been my staple wine of choice.

During the spring of 2004 I was on a trip to Santiago, Chile as part of my Boston Univ. Executive MBA program during which a group of us visited a nearby Maipo Valley winery called Viña Helquén Ltda. Chile’s specialty is red wines, and this experience was the catalyst to my renewed and expanding interest in wine to include red wines (I brought back 2 bottles of 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon from Huelquén) and wines from other parts of the world (old and new world wines). I have since taken a short wine tasting class at BCAE where I was exposed to some fantastic wines from Spain and Italy, among others. I personally find some of the Spanish red wines to be fabulous tasting and, of course, they are still fabulously priced (translation: low priced).

Subsequent to my trip to Chile the idea of starting a wine tasting club in Boston began to develop and, after discussing it with some friends and confirming that there was a void in clubs of this kind, I decided to form a talented team of professionals (Susan, Jay, John and Erik) who are also wine enthusiasts and make such a club a reality. Thus, Boston Uncorked was born and I welcome you to share with us in building the most interesting, exciting and people-friendly wine tasting club in the land!

If you have any questions/comments/suggestions you would like to share with me about Boston Uncorked and/or this website, feel free to drop me a line here.  But first things first: sign up to become a Member!