Early Bird Ends
January 31, 2025
Judging
Date
May 19, 2025
Winners Announcement
June 10, 2025
Bay Area native Michael Mighetto Hoefling has recently become one of the emerging tastemakers in the Bay Area. As a UC Davis graduate and someone who has always loved agriculture and beverage Michael launched himself into wine in the early 2000’s. From being on the winemaking team at Robert Mondavi, brewing beer at Berkeley’s Triple Rock Brewery which is one of America's oldest Brewpubs, to running a tasting room for Chateau Montelena to working alongside America’s top wine writer Karen MacNeil as she revised the Wine Bible.
Michael currently is a Client Advisor at Vinfolio. Prior to the pandemic, he used to run the full beverage program at the Claremont, a Fairmont Hotel in Berkeley, where he has an act for finding the very best of California wines. Prior to working at the Claremont, Michael has spent the last 5 years working at some of the greatest restaurants in San Francisco (the then 3-star Michelin Saison restaurant, and 2-star Michelin Lazy Bear), where he built expert knowledge of Burgundy and California wine.