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Karen’s first introduction to the world of wine began while she was visiting her parents in Missouri one summer while finishing up college at the University of Georgia. They took a day trip to a quaint winery in what seemed like the middle of nowhere, and were offered tastes of different wines to be enjoyed with an assortment of artisan cheese and fresh bread while overlooking a pastoral view from tiered decks off the tasting room. This indelible image and unique experience instilled the vision of one day owning a similar place of her own.

After years of extensively reading wine books and taking wine classes while living in Breckenridge, Colorado, she realized these educational acts simply weren’t enough to take her closer to her dream of being surrounded by vines, wines and other wine enthusiasts like herself. She dropped everything and moved to St. Helena in the heart of the Napa Valley and took a position as a cellar rat with a boutique winery.

For two years she completely immersed herself in the production side of wine. But, with a whole world of wine out there, she began looking into other aspects of the wine industry that best suited her growing interests. As fate would have it, a new wine bar opened and Karen was instrumental in transforming it into a thriving place for locals and tourists alike promoting flights of wine to excite and challenge the palates of even the biggest wine aficionados. Spearheading a wine bar at this local hot spot and developing a program that launched new wines from the Napa Valley became the most satisfying portion of her career path.

Next step? To open a truly inimitable wine shop. Enter ACME Fine Wines, a gallery-style wine showroom, off the beaten path and down a country lane in St. Helena. The business plan? To specialize in discovering and launching the finest of the inaugural release, Napa Valley brands while keeping a secondary focus on the lauded wines of the world. And, to best showcase the principles of excellent customer service, clients and wine club members receive access to these micro-production wines, often on an exclusive basis, in the very first vintage and then on an allocation level for each vintage thereafter; it is like being on multiple preferred mailing lists, managed entirely by ACME.