About Us

Jazz Wines Online

Jazz Wines was launched to create an experiences of new value for quality-seekers, hoping to use the Web as a easy guide to more closely connect consumers with talented producers & their creative collaborators. Our opening message can be found in Messages from Jazz Wines from May 31, 2007.

Based in Toronto, we involve wine makers from Australia, talents in the U. S., skilled travelers and musicians from around the world. We love music, wine improvisation and collaboration as creators in our right. We celebrate talents, creativity, opportunity for constant learning and growth experiences. It's what inside that counts. And it's whose inside that matters. Many of us are inquisitive and worldly, trusting our own opinions and respecting the recommendations of others as we seek quality destinations, enjoying the process of discovery and learning, to differentiate what we enjoy most in the time available.

Life offers us a taste of music, food, news. And Jazz Wines is about enabling more meaningful and greater access to more enjoyable experiences. Stanley Crouch, professor, poet and jazz artist once said that Jazz "can be reduced in a certain sense to one word, welcome."

Contributors

Founder & Managing Editor: Leslie Hayman
Leslie is one of two Founders of Jazz Wines and provided leadership in conceptual and technical development of its online environment. She has a long background in the food and beverage business including involvement in launch of a beverage group for Virgin Enterprises and design work for one of the largest wine retailers in the world. And she has worked with Canadian winemakers on packaging as well as strategic research and planning for Australian winemakers.

Her passion is for the collaborative and creative process. Leslie grew up playing piano and flute, and after studying film and the film business, won recognition as a photographer and video producer. She was also the founder of a digital media festival involving jazz musicians, experimental visual artists and improvisatoinal computer systems at the dawn of the Internet.

Leslie enjoys travel, the Arts, food, wine and time with its creators. She feels fortunate for opportunity to work with jazzwines.com to explore jazz, wine and new potential for cultivation of its informed appreciation.

Founder: Greg Homonylo
Greg is a Founder of Jazz Wines, conceiving of its potential and providing expertise in the area of wine and the music business with hands-on experiences as a drummer.

He has deep roots in the wine business, establishing the Australian industry office in Canada in 2000 and, over a five-year period, helping to establish Wine Brand Australia with double digit growth. Greg also helped establish an international wine producers' association in Canada and has working experiences at many levels. He worked with the largest wine retailer in Australia following time with large international as well as independent record labels there and in Canada.

Greg enjoys food, wine, drumming and travel. He has worked through harvest with a wine producer in New Zealand.

Writing & Editorial Assistance: Andi Swanson
Andrea is a writer and chef by training, but has contributed both wine articles and background pieces for jazz. She provides the copy edits, but also help in finding clarity of voice. Learning as she goes in both the jazz and wine realm, Andrea brings to the group a tremendous respect for the creative process and, in her work, a valuable ability to help discover and appreciate the unique qualities of her subject and the accomplishments of those around her.

Design Team
Visual design for Jazz Wines including our online environment has been led with a delightfully light touch by H.M.Himmelein who developed initial concepts for the site with Richard Norman.

Greg and Leslie worked with them prior to engaging d.prock creative who has worked with Leslie to develop and launch jazzwines.com as an easily-administered working environment and electronic publication. In this, d.prock creative has shared with us his graphic design experiences, depth of knowledge in our operating platform and systems requirements as well as coding writing expertise.

Both team members bring creative energy to jazzwines.com with their own style of inquisitive initiative and an extraordinary patience with an evolving team of contributors. H.M.Himmelein and d.prock creative ensure that jazzwines.com is not only alive and well, but hopefully beautiful too.

If you see something on jazzwines.com that you think might be a problem, concern or opportunity for us, we'd appreciate it if you please let us know.