An Artist’s Eye…An Entrepreneur’s Spirit…A Passion for Wine
Wine Country Life is my opportunity to bring those stories together.
Through engaging features, destination discoveries, wine experiences, culinary adventures, history, art and conversations with the people behind the businesses and brands. My goal is to create a sophisticated yet welcoming guide to the Wine Country lifestyle.
This is not simply a website about wine. It is about the life that surrounds wine. It is about discovering something new, slowing down long enough to appreciate it, and finding inspiration in the people, places, and experiences that make Wine Country unique.
Welcome to Country Wine Life. I invite you to explore, discover, and most importantly enjoy the journey.
I’m Neil Kruel, an artist, educator, entrepreneur, and the founder of Wine Country Life, a company for those who celebrate wine, food, history, art and travel.
My journey to Wine Country Life has been shaped by a lifelong appreciation for creativity, craftsmanship, and the stories behind the things we value. I hold a Master of Arts degree from the University of Missouri and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Northern Colorado. As an artist, I have worked across many creative disciplines including painting, ceramics, sculpture and mixed media. My work is represented in private collections both nationally and internationally. I also spent eight years teaching at East Central College, where I taught art history, painting, and ceramics and helped establish the college’s ceramics program.
My career has never been limited to the studio. I have founded and operated businesses in advertising, real estate development, and the arts. Those experiences taught me that successful businesses are built not only on good ideas, but on vision, relationships, presentation, and an ability to recognize what makes something distinctive. That same perspective is at the heart of Country Wine Life.
I see wine as much more than what is in the glass. Wine is about place, people, history, food, conversation and experience. It connects us to the land and to one another. Great wine is equally at home around an elegant dinner table, on a vineyard patio, in an artist’s studio, or gathered with friends at the end of a beautiful day.
As an artist, I naturally look for the details that others might overlook; the personality of its people, the craftsmanship behind a bottle, the atmosphere of a restaurant, or the quiet beauty of a vineyard landscape. I believe those details are what transform a destination into an experience and a bottle of wine into a story.
