About Us

Wine Accessible To Everyone – With Your Personal Sommelier

Company Profile:

Wine Intelligentsia, Inc. was founded in Los Angeles, California in August 2010 by Laurent P. Michit, Certified Advanced Sommelier. Lauren Caro joined forces in February 2016 after several successful wine tasting events in France. The term “Intelligentsia” was chosen from the Russian language meaning a group of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor. Our main task is to share and distribute our knowledge, interest and education to wine novices, collectors, wineries, importers, distributors, specialty retails stores and restaurants owners. Wine Intelligentsia, Inc. is a company committed to bringing a passion for wine into the lives of everyday people and lead you through the often intimidating, yet fascinating world of wine with excellent expert informations.

About Us:

Laurent Michit – Owner & Chief Bottle Opener

Laurent was born in Burgundy, France. A serious passion for the wine world became obvious at his very early age. In 1987, he experienced his first harvest at Domaine Ramonet in Chassagne Montrachet and that same year, entered Lycee Simone Weill in Dijon where he studied and completed 5 years of Wine & Spirits Management and became Certified Advanced Sommelier with his mentor, Mr Robert Euvrard.

Laurent then decided to travel and worked for 18 years in some of the finest Michelin Star Restaurants in the wine regions around the world: South Africa, France, Spain and now California where he has been living for 9 years. Laurent P. Michit was in the Top 100 Best Sommelier in America (Wine Spectator, August 2006). Currently and for the last 4 years, He has been providing his beverage consulting and services to many restaurants and specialty retails stores, and conduct dozens of private wine events.

This is one of Laurent’s best professional memory taken at The Domaine De La Romanée Conti with Aubert de Vilaine (Owner), Bernard Noblet (Winemaker), Fabienne & Hubert, his Sommelier colleagues and Mr & Mme Lameloise, owner of the 3 Michelin Star Restaurant in the heart of the vineyards of Burgundy where he was working at the time.

Lauren Caro – Director of Marketing, Certified Sommelier

Once upon a time, NOT such a long time ago there was a little girl called Lauren Caro who lived surrounded by some of the best and most beautiful vineyards of France Lauren’s grandfather loved good wines so much that he used to put a tiny drop of his favourite wines in the glass of water Lauren would drink at meal times, hoping to pass on his passion ….

Lauren Caro was born in the gastronomic heart of France, in the city of Lyon. A city surrounded by some of the greatest French wines, wines such as Burgundy, Beaujolais, Jura and Cotes du Rhone. The daughter of the owner of Caro de Lyon (a well-loved restaurant in the centre of the city) and passionate about the magic woven by the marriage of great food and great wines, she decided early on to make her love of wine her career.

Lauren was mentored by the owner of the ‘Antic Wine Cellar’, George Dos Santos, considered one of the 10 best cellar men and wine merchants of his generation. She is a qualified sommelier and as passionate about sharing her knowledge of wine as her grandfather could ever have dreamed.

Lauren is now investing all her talents in ‘Wine Intelligentsia’ alongside Laurent Michit, bringing her subtly feminine passion for wine ‘Stateside’ offering catering services through the marriage of Wine Intelligentsia and Girls Gone Wine in the USA, and at the same time presenting through workshops a fresh and innovative take on the introduction to and continued discovery of the wines she loves so much.