About The Blog

"Curiosity is the engine of achievement" - Ken Robinson

I was one year out of college and working in downtown Houston, Texas at a large utility company as a software consultant. At the time my hobbies were non-existent, I was living at home, and  working around the clock because that is what I thought post-college life should be. I was working with Tom (an employee at the utility company in his mid-30s) on an everyday basis and he was constantly talking about his travel adventures, including his most recent 3 week trip to Eastern Europe. As it turned out, Tom would save up all of his vacation each year to take one long trip and visit different countries/parts of the world. Tom was always adamant that "traveling" as a hobby had changed his life and encouraged everyone to try it for themselves. At the time I remember those conversations evoking a small sense of curiosity in me, but it wasn't until I went to Dubai two years later that I started to see truly see what Tom meant. 

Tom opened my eyes to the world of traveling and the world of traveling unlocked a passion and curiosity in me that I never knew I had. Traveling gave me insight into the long and storied history of our world, provided me with an immense amount of perspective, but most importantly it encouraged me to start thinking bigger!

For me "thinking bigger" meant taking things I enjoyed doing or learning about and really committing to them. This meant solo trips all over the world, hours in the kitchen making dishes from scratch, or trying new wines from some of the worlds most obscure wine regions. What started as an unidentified curiosity has evolved into an endless journey of knowledge, and ultimately resulted in the inception of this blog.

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You can say that meeting Tom as a consultant in downtown Houston 6.5 years ago was the first domino to fall in my journey to combine my curiosities and passions into something tangible, and you would probably be right. This blog is my first true attempt to not only think bigger but achieve bigger. The goal of MonteVino is simple: combine my curiosity and passion of Wine, Travel, and Food and turn them into a blog which will strive to educate, entertain, and engage. 

What will the end result be? - I am not quite sure but I hope you will stick around to find out. 

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