Lee grew up in East Tennessee and studied molecular biology at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. Like any good molecular biologist, he took a job as a beer brewer out of college and learned about fermentation as a craft brewer. After a couple of years brewing, Lee enrolled into graduate school to study Food Microbiology at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. He fell in love with all things wine when he took a part-time job at a winery in Knoxville, TN and began making small batches. Around that same time, he started exploring wine tasting and judging as a graduate student volunteer at the annual Wines of the South competition hosted by the Food Science Department at UT. Upon completing his MS in 2011, he set off to travel and learn about winemaking around the world. After doing harvest in Oregon and New Zealand, he now calls Sonoma County home and is the Technical Product Manager for Scott Labs.