About Matthew Kaner
Fermented grape juice has allowed Matthew Kaner to find a voice within an industry full of characters and strong personalities. He quite enjoys how things smell and taste. In fact, as a kid Matthew wouldn’t eat anything until he smelled it first. Now a 14+ year veteran of the wine world, his humble wine career began at the Wine Cask Wine Store in his hometown of Santa Barbara. Moving to Los Angeles in 2006 brought an opportunity to work at Silverlake Wine, where Matthew worked his way up from holiday help to manager.
In 2009, his close friend Dustin Lancaster presented Matthew with an idea…”I want to open a wine bar and I’ll only do it if you’ll do it with me.” The only acceptable response: “you tell me when and where.” In July 2010, Los Feliz’s Bar Covell opened with a new spin on wine…ditch the traditional wine list and use your words. Bar Covell has a program of over 150 wines by the glass and the staff instead start a conversation/interaction with each guest to gage what they are in the mood for at that moment. This was just the beginning...
Matthew was graciously was named one of the Sommeliers of the Year by Food & Wine Magazine in 2013. In early 2015 with Lancaster and new partner David Gibbs, the trio opened Augustine Wine Bar in Sherman Oaks. Augustine has been named Best Wine Bar in American by Food & Wine Magazine and gets critical acclaim for its Vintage Collection of wines that it makes available by the glass and by the bottle on their in-house chalk boards nightly, In March of 2019 along with two cofounders, Josh Onstott and Michael Curtis, Matthew launched a subscription wine club called Solovin, which brings sommelier selected small production wines directly to the home.
In August 2019, Wine Enthusiast Magazine named Matthew to the 40 Under 40 Tastemakers list! He is President of Will Travel For Wine, Inc and will travel anywhere and everywhere for wine. So far his travels have taken him up and down the coast of California, to Australia, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Austria, Germany, Morocco, South Africa, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Oregon, Virginia, and New York State on wine adventures.