Joel Kampfe is a certified Sommelier of 12 years, Master of Wine candidate, and co-owner of two natural wine businesses — Unrooted, a San Francisco-based natty wine club founded in 2018, and Noble Riot, Denver’s first natural wine bar founded in 2019.

After graduating from Cal Poly in Business and Viticulture, Kampfe started his industry journey as a winemaker in New Zealand and Napa Valley before shifting to the hospitality side as Wine Director at Savvy Cellar in Silicon Valley and ENO Wine Bar in San Francisco, Chicago, and Washington D.C. locations. 

Kampfe is currently working as Retail Director for Acker, the oldest wine merchant in America and largest wine auction house in the world. When he’s not traveling around the world with wine importers and/or making his own wine with a literal ton of grapes he sources directly from producers, you can find him perfecting his ping-pong skills and/or training his cat, Macabeo, to roll over, sit, and shake.