Buyers & writers
Every article here is written by the person who bought the wine, walked the vineyard and argued over the price. Nine buyers, one writer, and no press releases.
Ryan took over the Bordeaux desk from Clyde Beffa Jr. in 2024 after a decade at K&L and five en primeur campaigns at his side, and now leads buying across the company. His path into wine began in East Coast restaurants more than twenty years ago — a 1998 Gaja Barbaresco did it — and he wrote his first wine list at 21. He travels to Bordeaux every spring to taste the new vintage from barrel, and writes the Bordeaux newsletter.
Tom comes to K&L from Zachys, the New York fine-wine merchant and auction house run by his family, where he was a senior buyer. He now buys Burgundy for K&L and leads strategic growth and partnerships, including the 2026 opening of the New York store — a Burgundy program built on long relationships with the domaines, and a second generation of a New York wine family on the floor. He writes the Burgundy newsletter.
Gary has been K&L's Champagne buyer since 2000 and built the grower Champagne program from the ground up — more than 300 selections today, many of them direct imports from family estates he visits every year. A California native, he hosts the annual Champagne Tent Event, chooses the Champagne Club shipments, and has written the Champagne newsletter for most of his 25 years with the company.
Keith was part of the crew that opened K&L Hollywood in 2007 and became the Rhône buyer in 2014, adding the Loire in 2017 and the rest of regional France along the way; he now covers Alsace and Greece too. A self-described soil geek and the cook behind many a K&L barbecue, he writes about food as readily as wine, along with the Rhône and Loire newsletters.
Orazio buys Italian wine for K&L, curating one of the most respected selections in California, from the icons of Barolo and Brunello to growers few in the United States have heard of. Originally from Italy, he came to retail from the dining rooms of Del Posto and Per Se, holds a culinary degree from the International Culinary Center in New York, and is a VIA-certified Italian Wine Ambassador and Educator. He also covers Austria, and writes the Italian newsletter.
Ryan has bought domestic wine for K&L since 2017, after several years as the buyer who brought New Zealand and Australian producers like Te Whare Ra, Te Mata and Framingham to the United States for the first time. He came up through the Santa Cruz Mountains wine scene, including stints at Bonny Doon and Testarossa, and is the person colleagues send you to when you want the soil type, the winemaker's history and the vintage in one breath. He writes the Domestic newsletter.
Rachael joined K&L in 2025 after more than twenty years in wine on three continents: restaurants in New York, a master's in gastronomy in Adelaide, and sommelier work in Sydney running one of the Southern Hemisphere's largest wine lists. She buys Spain, Portugal and Germany along with Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and South America, and writes the newsletters for all of them.
David has bought spirits for K&L for the better part of two decades, building the Kentucky single-barrel program and the Faultline and Every Drop house labels along the way. He has spent more than twenty years exploring whisky, and his writing ranges just as widely — Cognac, Armagnac and Calvados from small estates, tequila, rum and the occasional sake — always with the same question: is it worth the money? He writes the Spirits newsletter.
Mike buys beer and cider for all of K&L's California stores, from Belgian Trappist ales and German lagers to the Bay Area breweries he follows closely. He writes the monthly Beer Buzz and the seasonal guides — St. Patrick's Day stouts, Fourth of July lagers, Thanksgiving ales — and has been known to pour a Tavel between beers.
Stephanie moved to Louisville more than a decade ago and learned bourbon behind the bar of a downtown whiskey bar; she now coordinates K&L's private-label spirits and writes the stories behind them — the single barrels, the house labels, and the distillers who make them.