"Home Sweet Home"

Wine Merchants are there to teach you something new about wine every time you visit.

Wine Merchants are there to have you explore wine and explain new flavors from the bottles they bring into there store.

Wine Merchants are there to share there knowledge of bottles that have been tasted in the pass and the history surrounding them.

But these VINATERO's have become more than just business owners and merchants but true friends and lovers of wine just like myself. In the time that I have gotten to know both Ernie and Lisa Ceja, we have tasted hundreds of wines together. We have shared dozens of bottles together. We have visited each others homes for dinners and parties. We have travelled to wineries to speak hands on with the owners themselves.

This little wine shop in the town of Whittier California has become my home away from home. I first met the Ceja's on the day that there little shop opened in 2007. 3 years before I sat around with my Big Brother and my best friend thinking why don't we open a wine bar in Whittier. I great idea in theory but no way would I or my friends and family could of pulled it off to the style that Ernie and Lisa have. Having a place to come and sample wine so close to my home has given me a bigger love and understanding for this little fruit that I love so much. Your education and understanding grows as you taste wines over and over. I can't thank the Ceja's enough for giving me that chance. My knowledge of varietals, regions and history have created a passion in me that puts me here now in front of my Computer to write about it. The more and more that I continue to write about wines that I have tasted and enjoyed the more reasons I have to thank the people that have got me there. My older brother Michael is the person that started it all back in 1996, but the Ceja's have also been very pivotal in that training, understanding and love of wine. I continue to think that someday I may just have in one form or another, a career in the wine industry someday.

I just wont ever forget the friends that I have made along the way.

www.vinaterowineshop.com

Cheers