I'm Levy Dalton and this is all drink to that where we get behind the scenes of the wine business. Oh, Jeff Porter on the show today of Del Posto, the Italian restaurant in the meat packing district.

Hello sir. Hi, Levy, how's it going? Nice see you. Happy New Year.

So you're big time Sommeier over at the four-star Del Posto there, but how did you get your start?

You were over in Austin back in the day?

Yeah, I started in Austin in college.

It was as most Somaliers, I think, of our generation,

it kind of was happenstance.

You kind of start drinking at a party, and then you learn, oh, people make money off of this, and I'm better at this than organic chemistry, and I took it from there.

Started at restaurants as a dishwasher because I, well,

I wasn't old enough to buy alcohol legally,

and it was a good way to get free alcohol from the chef.

Because you're part of the crew.

Exactly, exactly.

And I think he felt bad for me for being a dishwasher on Thursday, Friday,

Saturday night as an 18-

19-year-old kid trying to make some extra cash and smelling really, really bad.

And at the end of the night, it was like my little reward and my, at that time,

minimum wage, I think was like four dollars so four dollars in a

glass of wine it kind of pushed me over the edge eventually when I turned 21 I

I really wanted to learn more about wine.

And I begged and pleaded and bartered

in some other unsundry things to get a job as a stock boy.

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