He graduated from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting with minors in History and English. He then joined the family business and within 2 years found that his true passion was and remains wine.

He took his first wine course in 1974. He is a graduate of the German Wine Academy in Kloster Eberbach. His wine studies have taken him to France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Chile, Greece, and of course, California.

Michael left the family business in 1981 to join Chateau & Estates, which at that time was Seagram’s premium wine division. He was recruited by Vintage Wine Merchants and joined them for a short time before returning to the family business.

In 1994, Michael made the decision to leave the family business and move to California, where he took on the job of creating a tasting room for Steltzner Vineyards. He left there to eventually open a store in Santa Rosa, before moving his business to Sonoma.

In 2003, Michael made the decision to go into the wine brokerage business, starting Premier Wines.

Michael merged his business with Michael Quinn in September, 2004 becoming Premier Wine Brokers, now Premier Wine Brokers, Ltd.

Some of Michael’s accomplishments include, writing for 3 publications in Maryland; having his store recognized in a national publication as one of the best in Maryland; he was the keynote speaker at the Premier Wine & Seafood Festival for the International Wine & Food Society. He has taught 2 thirteen week World of Wine Classes for the adult education program at Chesapeake Community College.

He has put together numerous tastings and dinners for the various organizations he has been associated with throughout his career. From trade tastings for Chateau & Estates and Vintage Wine Merchants, to dinners with the top chefs in the D.C. & MD area with Les Cents Chevaliers du Vin, food and wine have always been a passion into this, his 43rd year in the business.

Wanting to expand his knowledge to the other side of the wine business, Michael joined the sales division for a fine wine distributor in Northern California. His large territory included the counties of Marin, Sonoma, Mendocino, Napa and Sacramento.

In 1997 Michael started his own small winery, Michael-Scott, producing mainly small-lots of Zinfandel from the top-appellations and eventually adding Napa Cabernet to the portfolio in 2001.

The inaugural release, the 1996 Napa Zinfandel garnered 90 points in the Wine Spectator. Since then the wines have been well received with numerous awards including “Best of Class 2001 Napa Valley Cabernet” in San Francisco. The wines have been on the lists of some of the finest restaurants in the U.S.

Never exceeding 1500 cases per year for the Michael-Scott brand, Michael still found the time to broker wines and consult for Northern California wineries with an emphasis on sales, distribution and brand building.

In 2004 Michael Quinn and Michael Pinsky joined forces to become Premier Wine Brokers, Ltd.