After graduating from UC Berkeley with a BA in Computer Science, O’Byrne seemed destined for the life of a computer jock. But during a year of increasingly longer lunches savoring the wines of France while working in Paris as a software engineer, O’Byrne heard the siren’s call and headed down the path of wine and food and never looked back.

A steady presence in the Santa Fe restaurant scene since 1987, O’Byrne has been the Executive Director of the Santa Fe Wine &  Chile Fiesta since 1994, a job he started while managing Coyote Café, and the owner of Taos Winter Wine Festival since 1998.

A Certified Sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers, O’Byrne started his career as the dining room manager and wine instructor at Coyote Café. As the producer of the SFWC Fiesta since 1994 and the Annual Taos Winter Wine Festival since 1998, O’Byrne has created and organized hundreds of wine seminars, focusing on fun and informative ways to approach wine.

O’Byrne currently teaches wine courses at Bottega del Vino for the Santa Fe restaurant community and takes turns as a guest sommelier at various Santa Fe events to help raise money for community causes.

When not organizing his wine events, O’Byrne has been an annual Guest Sommelier at Pebble Beach Food & Wine, Big Sur Food & Wine, and the World of Pinot Noir.

A passionate bicyclist and traveler, O’Byrne has cycled across vineyards in a dozen countries on five continents. His most recent trip took him to the Canary Islands where he explored the wines and vineyards of Tenerife Island.

O’Byrne believes in wine at the dinner table every night and lives by the motto, It’s not what you drink, but who you drink it with that counts.