Winemaker Clark Smith dropped out of M.I.T. in 1971, and has been in the wine industry ever since. Among the Clark 's claims to fame are the only perfect score ever in the Winetasting Olympics and being fired by Alice Waters. Twice.

After graduating from U.C. Davis in 1983, Clark served as winemaker for the R.H. Phillips Vineyard for its first seven years, taking it from 3,000 cases per year to 250,000. In 1990, he began Vinovation, now the world's largest winemaking consulting company, with over 1200 clients around the world. Clark and his staff at Vinovation named the practices they developed “GrapeCraft”, a name adopted by his family’s winemaking venture, GrapeCraft Wines. These practices mainly center around building structure, integrating aroma, and promoting living soils.

Clark spends his time dreaming up ways to improve his client's wines, rattling the cages of established wine industry icons and institutions, folksinging, and making his own line of eclectic brands including the astounding WineSmith line, the fun & friendly PennyFarthing wines, and the groundbreaking CheapSkate brand. Clark also miraculously finds time to teach courses in Enology at University of California at Davis, Napa Valley College, Fresno State University, Southwest Missouri State University, Florida International University, and l’Academie du Vin in Tokyo.

For Appellation America, Clark contributes a regular column on the practical art of connecting the human soul to the soul of a place by rendering its grapes into liquid music. To read more of Clark’s writings, visit his Blog, GrapeCrafter, The Wine Technology Blog.