My New Intern

My new intern is, well...he's really not an intern. He's a friend, a business professional, and the Hospitality

Management Instructor at Lane Community College (LCC). He's Mr. Joe McCully, Certified Hospitality Educator. But, I call him Joe...and he calls me...well, about once every three months. Just kidding, Joe. He calls me a little more often than that, but the once a quarter call is to ask me to come and work with him in his Oregon Wine Country class. The class, developed by him, takes his students through wine and food pairings of the local Eugene area. I think he's had all of the wineries attend and some (like myself) multiple times. The principle goals for the students are to learn:

• more about the local area wineries
• more about how food and wine pair together and why
• more about wine in general; to make it more approachable

Joe has 30 years of restaurant management experience. He went on sabbatical for three months to China where he taught hotel operations. He's been a full time instructor at LCC for over 12 years. My favorite part about Joe? He's been a LaVelle Wine Club member for several years! But what about this internship?

From time to time as a teacher you get the opportunity to continue your own education while gathering knowledge that you can take back to your own classes. This keeps classes fresh and relevant to today's graduates. Knowing what the current state of local businesses are can help a teacher make sure their students are best prepared to go out and get that perfect job. That's why Joe approached me with the idea of an internship. It's 80 hours, and he'll work in all facets of our business. We are largely a vertically integrated company which means that we have a vineyard, we make and finish wines in our own facility, and we mostly sell all of our wines ourselves through our tasting room in Elmira and our Wine Bar & Grille in North Springfield.

Most of us here at LaVelle already know Joe from either taking one of his classes or serving him as a long standing customer and wine club member. Working side by side with Joe as he helps me in the vineyard and winery and the sales staff at some of our big and small events will be enriching for the both of us.

Welcome to LaVelle Joe McCully!