Stefano Buttò was born and raised in Northern Italy where he became a licensed attorney in 1999 and practiced until the end of 2010. It was a pivotal year in that he completed Level 2 with the Italian Sommelier Association and moved to Temecula, California. After working for local wineries and restaurants, he started his own wine brokerage business, sipiens.com. Buttò currently promotes the wines imported by Vinity, The Organic Cellar, and Fabulous Wines in San Diego County. Since 2014 he’s been teaching the Wine Hospitality class at Mount San Jacinto College where he also coordinates the wine education program. Since 2016 he has been teaching the Italian Wines Intensive course at San Diego State University. He also teaches for the North American Sommelier Association through which he achieved the Italian Wine Specialist certification. Buttò is the founder of B.T.W. (Blind Taste Wine), a group of professionals who meet periodically to taste and evaluate wines.