About David and the Wine Cellar

About David Mebane

Born in New Orleans and raised in Austin, I developed an early fascination with travel, history, and culture. That curiosity first led me to France in 1995, after my freshman year at Texas A&M University, when I spent the summer in a small Norman village working as a guide at an abbey founded in 1189 by King Richard the Lionheart.

What began as a summer abroad quickly became a lifelong connection. I returned to France each year throughout college for work and study programs, deepening both my fluency in the language and my appreciation for French culture, food, and wine. In 1998, while working in the Paris office of PricewaterhouseCoopers, I founded Fat Tire Tours, which officially launched the following year.

The decade that followed in Paris became one of the most meaningful chapters of our lives. My wife, Kelly, and I built Fat Tire Tours while fully embracing life in the city we loved. Our son, Weston, was born in Paris in 2005, and after returning to Austin in 2007, we welcomed our daughter, Caroline, the following year.

Today, we are fortunate to maintain a pied-à-terre just blocks from the Eiffel Tower, allowing us to return to Paris several times each year. The city continues to inspire us and remains very much our home away from home.

Our Love for Wine

During our years in Paris, Kelly and I developed a deep appreciation for French wine, captivated by the way a single bottle could feel both effortlessly simple and endlessly nuanced. Over time, I found myself especially drawn to the powerful yet refined reds of Saint-Émilion, while Kelly gravitated toward the crisp Sauvignon Blancs and delicate rosés of Sancerre. Although we explored wines from every corner of France, those two regions always felt uniquely personal to us.

Wine gradually became part of the rhythm of our everyday life in France. It elevated family dinners, stretched conversations late into the evening, and defined slow weekend afternoons with friends. Even today, opening a bottle in Austin can instantly transport us back to Paris, sitting on a blanket in the Champ de Mars with the Eiffel Tower glowing in the distance. Great wine has a remarkable ability to shape a moment, deepen a connection, and turn ordinary evenings into lasting memories.

In 2015, I celebrated my 40th birthday in Saint-Émilion and discovered a collection of extraordinary small producers hidden among the rolling vineyards surrounding the village. Four years later, I made my first trip to Sancerre and immediately wondered why I had waited so long to visit. While we had long enjoyed wines from many of France’s celebrated houses, it was the small, family-owned domaines that truly captured our hearts. Their wines carried a sense of authenticity, craftsmanship, and place that simply could not be replicated.

Over the years, we formed lasting friendships with several of these winemaking families, and their bottles have become staples in both our Paris pied-à-terre and our home in Austin. Today, sharing those wines with others through David’s Wine Cellar feels like a natural extension of the journey that began for us in France decades ago.

David's Wine Cellar

After years of sharing bottles from our personal collection with friends and family, we began to notice the same reaction again and again. People were not only enjoying the wines, they were surprised by them. Many had never experienced French wines from small, family-owned producers, and just as importantly, they discovered that truly exceptional French wine did not have to cost one hundred dollars a bottle.

What started as a simple idea, importing wine for our own cellar and a small circle of friends, quickly began to grow organically. In 2018, I organized my first shipment from Saint-Émilion to Austin. A handful of friends joined the order, and word spread quickly. Soon, friends of friends were asking to participate as well. By the following year, our second shipment from the same château had more than doubled in size.

In 2019, I placed our first order from Sancerre, and demand exceeded anything we expected. The shipment was larger than our first two Bordeaux orders combined. Even today, many of us still laugh about the same thing: we should have ordered more.

What people discovered was something increasingly rare in today’s wine market: authentic, small-production French wines that were approachable, fairly priced, and unlike the mass-produced labels lining most retail shelves. These were bottles with real character and a true sense of place, wines that naturally sparked conversation around the table and created memorable moments when shared with family and friends.

I also understand the frustration many people feel when standing in a wine shop facing hundreds of unfamiliar labels with little meaningful guidance. Too often, the decision comes down to a beautiful label, a high price tag, or a hopeful guess that the bottle will somehow justify the purchase once it is opened. Wine should not feel intimidating or transactional. Finding a bottle you love should feel personal, enjoyable, and trustworthy.

That belief is ultimately what inspired David’s Wine Cellar: to make discovering exceptional French wine feel approachable, authentic, and deeply rewarding.

My goals for David’s Wine Cellar are simple:

To share the remarkable wines we have come to love in France with friends here at home, and with the family and friends gathered around their own tables.
To offer exceptional value. Truly outstanding wine should not require an extravagant price tag, and discovering quality should never feel exclusive or out of reach.
To showcase small, family-owned French producers whose wines are rarely found on local retail shelves, domaines with generations of history, craftsmanship, and pride behind every bottle.
To provide a thoughtfully curated collection rather than an overwhelming wall of labels. I believe wine should feel approachable and enjoyable, not confusing or intimidating.
To help people feel confident choosing, serving, and talking about wine without needing to be an expert. Great wine is not about pretension. It is about enjoyment, curiosity, and shared experience.
And above all, to have fun with it.

Wine has a unique ability to bring people together. It sparks conversation, celebrates milestones, deepens friendships, and transforms ordinary evenings into memorable ones. Some of life’s best moments happen around a table with people you enjoy, a great meal, and a bottle worth sharing.

And yes, those moments are even better when the wine comes in a jeroboam.

The Winemakers

One of the greatest privileges of building David’s Wine Cellar has been the opportunity to develop personal relationships with many of the men and women behind the wineries we represent. Several have even traveled to Austin to share meals, stories, and bottles with us here at home.

These are passionate, hands-on producers who live and work alongside their families in the very vineyards their wines come from. Their connection to the land is deeply personal, shaped by generations of tradition, hard work, and pride in their craft. They are not faceless brands or corporate labels, but real people devoted to creating wines that genuinely reflect their terroir and the character of their region.

What makes these relationships especially meaningful is how welcoming these families are. On your next trip to France, many of these domaines are places you can visit yourself. More often than not, you will be greeted warmly, shown around the cellar by the owner or winemaker, and invited to sit down together with a bottle already open.

That spirit of hospitality, authenticity, and connection is at the heart of everything we hope to share through David’s Wine Cellar.

I look forward to raising a glass with you soon. Santé.