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Keith Miller: From cantor to wine shop owner

A longtime practicing cantor, Keith Miller never expected to become a businessman.
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September 17, 2014

A longtime practicing cantor, Keith Miller never expected to become a businessman. 

Before he opened his online wine shop, D-Cantor Enterprises Inc. (d-cantor.com), Miller had been a Jewish professional, working at Sinai Temple in Westwood as director of b’nai mitzvah programming and later serving as a cantor at several local congregations.

But Miller’s interest in the wine business began 15 years ago with a visit to a close friend’s house. He and his wife had brought along a “mediocre” bottle of wine for the occasion, and after thanking Miller for the gift, the friend introduced him to a high-quality wine.  

“It was like a revelatory moment,” Miller said. “From that point on, I was a consumer.”

To learn about the industry in-depth, he took classes, acquired certifications in wine tasting and mastered the proper techniques for serving wine. He traveled to locations as far as South Africa in pursuit of boutique wines to add to his collection, and his business boasts vintages from Italy, Israel and France. 

D-Cantor was incorporated in 2011, and Miller’s connections and contacts from the Jewish community enabled it to grow. The shop may not be a “brick-and-mortar” store, Miller said, but it’s an efficient way for people to browse and purchase wines. Customers can place their orders at the website, d-cantor.com, and have the wines of their choice delivered to their doorstep. 

Miller said his wide variety of wines enables him to sell his wares at competitive prices, and the shop offers delivery services, preventing customers from having to pay pricy shipping fees. Most important, Miller has never sold a bottle of wine that he wouldn’t personally drink.

“I’m always tasting all the wines that I feature,” he said. “I’m always tasting everything to make sure it’s something I like personally.” 

D-Cantor’s most popular wines are blends — mixtures of two or more varietals — such as Brassfield Estate Winery Eruption, a dry red wine. Malbecs and pinot noirs tend to be best-sellers as well. Miller said he prefers to “mix things up” and keeps his customers up to date with newsletters featuring individual wines. 

One of D-Cantor’s selling points, Miller said, is that the shop stocks kosher wines. To qualify as kosher, wines must adhere to a set of strict standards. One is that all of the workers involved with the production must be observant Jews, unless the wine is mevushal, which requires that it be heated to a high temperature.

Miller said he has spoken to leading kosher winemakers such as Jeff Morgan, co-owner of Napa Valley-based Covenant Wines, to learn more about the production process. 

“Ideally, I want to be the place that people go to when they think of kosher wines,” Miller said. 

Furthermore, he said, supporting Israeli winemakers is a method of helping the Jewish state. By assisting small businesses, he hopes to counteract forces that seek to undermine Israel’s economic stability. 

No longer a full-time cantor so he can devote time to his business, Miller still works as a b’nai mitzvah mentor and teacher in the religious school at Sinai Temple; he also has been a guest cantor in San Francisco. 

Miller is the sole employee of D-Cantor, which he runs with assistance from his wife, Laura. He hopes to eventually hire another worker and purchase a delivery truck. Someday, he said, he’d like to own a wine bar.   

As with any trade, mastering the ins and outs of the wine industry has been a learning process. The first time Miller led a private wine tasting, he uncorked all of the bottles of wine — about a dozen in all — and received an indignant reaction from the event’s hosts. They had wanted to save some of the wine for a later occasion, but as Miller explained, once a bottle is opened, the “clock starts ticking” and the contents start to deteriorate. Now he makes it a point to only uncork one or two bottles at a time. 

“I’ll never make that mistake again,” he said, laughing.

The name D-Cantor is a fitting title because Miller sees his two roles — cantor and wine connoisseur — as complementary identities. 

“What I do in the Jewish world is very nurturing to people’s souls,” he said. “What I do in the wine world is very nurturing to their palates and bodies.” 

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