Mark Newton

Besides keyboards and mice, he makes wine

Now here's a guy who can multitask: Mark Newton, 51, runs a winery, works full time at Microsoft, helps his wife raise their two kids and is setting up a lab to bring better wine-making science to small wineries and hobbyists. His DiStefano Winery, now in Woodinville, will break ground this winter on a new home in a development to include several other wineries, shops, restaurants and condominiums. Among DiStefano's dozen wines are a $13 sauvignon blanc, often cited on "best value" lists, a velvety $32 reserve "Syrah R" and a $50 Bordeaux-style red blend called "Ottimo" with layers of complexity. The current winery, at 12280 Woodinville Dr. S.E., is open for tasting noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. See www.distefanowinery.com.

Q: What's the best part of wine-making?

A: For me, it's like opening up presents at Christmas. When you see the fruit that was just picked that morning, it's great. And eight days later, when you taste the wine for the very first time, it's like, wow.

Q: Where did the "DiStefano" name come from?

A: It's my wife Donna's maiden name. The first DiStefano wine was our 1990 sauvignon blanc.

Q: What do you do at Microsoft?

A: I'm a development manager for computer hardware. Keyboards, mice, optical fingerprint readers, toys — just about everything around the computer.

Q: You've had members of Microsoft's executive management team here at the winery. Has Bill Gates been here?

A: No, but I have poured our wine at his house. At a CEO summit . . . And again at a benefit his wife had for Duke University.

Q: You have a wine called "Sweet Catherine." Who's Catherine?

A: Catherine is my 8-year-old daughter, and she has to be the sweetest little girl in the world. I'd been wanting to make a sweet wine, so I made a Sauterne-style wine and named it for her.

Q: Another sweet wine is "Saint John." Your son?

A: Yes. He's my 11-year-old boy, and he's not particularly sweet — he's all boy.

Q: How do you find time for family?

A: Some people go to work and leave their families behind. But here, my wife can be working in the tasting room, Catherine can be signing bottles of her wine, and John can be in the back crawling over barrels or spreading tools all over.

Q: Will visitors find you in the tasting room?

A: Not often. And I'm not allowed to work the cash register. I tend to break it.