How California Treasures got started... by Martin Stewart Jr.

     “It seems like just yesterday, but I was bitten by the wine bug a few decades ago... I started out as what winemaker's affectionately call a "cellar rat". I was an intern learning the wine business from the ground up. This allowed me to see first hand the passion of innovative winemakers at large and small wineries throughout California.

     The more I knew about wine, the more pleasure I had tasting the wonderful variety of wines in my home state of California. And the more I wanted to share them with others. Today it's the fastest growing wine club in the world. Since our inception, we have operated as the champion of small, independent wineries that dot the hillsides and valleys of California. We call them the "hidden world" of wine.

     You see, the big distributors that sell wine to most wine shops and restaurants represent massive winery operations that make “predictable” and - truth be told - rather boring industrial wines. Here is where we come in...We take our members inside the hidden world of California wine, and introduce you to some of the best wines you've never heard of. There are literally thousands of these wineries, most small family-owned enterprises making relatively tiny batches of great wine. But there just isn’t much to go around, and we try to always get there first for our members.”