by Kara Daly

Common Market wine buyer Van “Wine Man” Miller. Photo courtesy

People who work in wine know that it’s a lifestyle. Your work isn’t separate from the rest of your life, and you have to love it. “It’s intertwined,” says Van “Wine Man Miller” Miller, wine buyer at Common Market in Plaza Midwood for a decade. “It’s more of a labor of love.” On a Tuesday afternoon, Miller is getting ready for his weekly wine tasting, taking breaks in between to help customers who come to get recommendations from their favorite wine man.

Common Market just celebrated their 20th anniversary; over the years the market has become infamous for being open every day, no matter what. Over the last ten years, Miller has become familiar with the palates of the many regulars that pass through, choosing wine for them almost before they even walk in the door.

Miller grew up in Sacramento, California, where wine was always on the table. In college, he lived in Paris for two years where he drank wine from pitchers, developing a better understanding of what was good and what wasn’t. Years later, working as an in-house photographer for an advertising agency in San Francisco, his work brought him to Charlotte. Drawn by the easy-going quality of life in Charlotte, he and his wife moved to the city and he began working with Charlotte magazine as it was just getting off the ground.

“Charlotte magazine, out of the blue, asked me if I wanted to write a wine article,” Miller says. He agreed, wrote a sample article, and for the next eight years, he wrote articles and a wine column for the magazine. After working other jobs like teaching photography in schools and prisons, he was approached by his friend, then general manager of Common Market, Gina Stewart, to fill the position of wine buyer. “I was like, what is this place?” Miller says. Miller quickly became fond of the high-energy role of working with consumers. “People were surprised because I’m definitely not an extrovert,” he says. “I’m more of an observer.”

Over the years, Miller has tasted thousands of wines, choosing bottles that represent the major wine regions, with a soft spot for lesser-known, affordable regions. “I knew about wine, I wrote about wine, but now I’ve learned so much about the process,” says Miller. “It makes me believe even more that it shouldn’t be pretentious.”

Common Market is known for keeping quality, affordable wine in stock, and is home to famous (and not terrible) $6 bins. When Miller started, the $6 bin was a $5 dollar bin, and amidst rising prices of California wines, the European wine tariff of 2020, inflation, and the pandemic, keeping a budget-friendly selection has become harder. But Miller isn’t sweating it.

“It’s a challenge now, but there’s still some good stuff in there,” he says. He recommends looking to Italy, Chile, Argentina, and Moldova for the best value finds. He loves to tell people about obscure regions in Southern France that you can’t find in the supermarket, and you can often find him spreading the gospel of Bonarda, an Argentinian grape. Whatever he’s pouring, he insists that we can appreciate great wine in the same way we can good quality produce. “It’s a joy, like eating a good tomato, or just part of a meal, like good bread,” Miller says.

“When I approach a wine, I don’t want to have a preconceived notion,” Miller says between carrying cases to customers’ cars. “I just want to see what’s in the glass and explore. Even if you don’t like a certain style, it’s fun to taste the different qualities. It’s a pretty cool thing.”

You can see wine through Miller’s eyes at his $5 wine tastings every Tuesday night at Common Market on Commonwealth Avenue, from 6-8pm.