Charles Finkel

Background

About Charles Finkel

I am an artist, writer, designer, and entrepreneur from Seattle, Washington. Born in N.Y, I grew up in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma where my interest agriculture was fostered. During my youth, I traveled annually to New York and San Francisco where I was exposed to fine art including the culinary type. In high school, I was voted "The most popular boy" and "best thespian." I was selected to represent my high school at Boy's State. I excelled in English and art and regard typing as my most important high school course. In college, I majored in design and marketing. In my senior year, I managed Mayo Medow's Liquor Store, transforming it into a fine wine, beer and spirit's store. In 1965 I moved to New York to work for the wine importer Monsieur Henri. In 1989, I founded Bon Vin, Inc, introducing the term "boutique" wines to describe hand crafted family-owned wineries. These included Fetzer, Kenwood, Sutter Home, Dry Creek, Ficklin and others for which Bon Vin was the exclusive US. agent outside of California. As the exclusive agent for Ste. Michelle, I pioneered marketing Washington State Wines nationally. I moved to Seattle in 1974 to join a team that built Chateau Ste. Michelle in Woodinville, WA. I have since, followed my passion for food and drink, being the first to market a range of craft beers of classic styles with my company, Merchant du Vin in 1978. As a part of MdV, Rose Ann and I opened The Pike Brewery in the historic Pike Place Market in 1989 and moved to our current location, becoming a brewpub in 1996. We sold Pike and MdV in 1997. In 2006, Rose Ann and I re-acquired The Pike Brewing Company, resuming our roles as president and vice president. It was at that time that I began to curate Pike’s Microbrewery Museum, tracing the eight-thousand-year history of beer from Sumer,(Mesopotamia,) to Seattle. In 2006 Draft Magazine listed me as first among the 10 Beer Innovators that shaped the American Craft Beer renaissance. In 1988, I was invited by The Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. to speak about the part that I played in the craft beer movement. I received the Brewers Association Recognition Award in 1998. In the 1996 edition of the French-Canadian publication Biére Magazine, Michael Jackson listed me as “among a dozen principals responsible for the modern renaissance of beer.” Many other awards followed. As Michael Jackson said,"it is a tough job, but someone had to do it!" Rose Ann Finkel died in 2021 and afterward, the controlling interest in Pike was sold to Seattle Hospitality Group. I remain with the company with the title of "Founder."