BIOGRAPHY – MICHAEL A. BERNSTEIN

Michael A. Bernstein, the author of The Paris Guide has had several careers. After graduating from the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania Law School he was a Teaching Fellow at Stanford Law School. For the next ten years he practiced consumer protection and antitrust law in the San Francisco office of the Federal Trade Commission where he was the Assistant Regional Director and President of the Federal Bar Association. In 1964, he and his wife, Arlene, purchased a 20 acre prune farm in the Mayacamas Mountains above the Napa Valley. Beginning in 1965 they slowly, by themselves, converted the steep hillside property to vineyard. Eventually there were 45 acres of land and about 20 acres of vineyard planted primarily to the five Bordeaux varieties of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petite Verdot.

In 1973 they founded Mount Veeder Vinery, and in 1983 after ten vintages they sold the winery and all of the property on Mount Veeder. During the latter years at Mount Veeder, Michael became interested in flying and eventually became an Instrument Flight Instructor; it remained only as an avocation and a way to get some space from the pressures of running the vineyard and the winery. It seems that the “third career” became travel. Since selling the winery they have traveled to over 115 countries. Although earlier travels concentrated on the “third world,” more recent travels have centered on Europe and in particular Paris, France.

Food and wine have been his interest for most of his life and he can still remember his first “shore dinner” of steak and lobster at Lundy’s in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn when he was four years old as well as his first “gourmet” meal at the “21 Club” in Manhattan when he was eleven.

Michael and Arlene continue to live in the Napa Valley on four acres where they farm, garden, and produce olive oil. The olive oil for years was for their own use, but in 2007 production jumped from the usual 13-14 cases to fifty. So now they are in the olive oil business.