The best thing about wine for Mat Macdonald, is the thrill of the hunt.

As the owner of Two Rock Wines, part of his job is scouring the globe for hidden treasures.

The scary part is once the bottles reach Bermuda — wine can be temperamental after transportation.

“Wine can go into bottle shock,” said the 37-year-old. “The bottles come to the Island and they are a little bit shaken from the journey. The hard part is having the patience to cellar them and let the wine come into its own. Wine is a living thing. I am still getting comfortable with the fear that you put thousands of dollars into a wine that takes time to settle.”

Two years ago he bought the majority share in John Sharpe’s business, New World Wines. “John ran New World Wines for almost 20 years and Two Rock Wines is our project that sprang out of New World Wines,” he said. “It is a bit of a rebrand and recreation of the business. I’d always wanted to own my own business.”

Together, they’ve travelled around the world — to places such as France, Portugal, Argentina, Chile and Spain — to sample wine and wine culture. Their great finds include a Gruner Veltliner from Schloss Gobelsburg under screw cap and Losada 2011, a wine made from the Mencia Grape in Bierzo. Both are priced well under $20.

“We try to travel as often as we can to visit with various winemakers to get a feel for the region,” Mr Macdonald said. “You can always read about things in wine journals or in newspapers, but we find out a lot by being in a place and asking what people are drinking.”

One of their favourite trips was to Portugal a few years ago. “We had a crazy, fun time [there],” Mr Macdonald said. “We met Dirk Niepoort, a winemaker in the Douro Valley, who makes port and still wines. We ended up tasting old ports from his great-grandfather’s time. It was an amazing experience. We have found people in the wine business to be very friendly.”

When The Royal Gazette spoke with Mr Macdonald yesterday he was in New York City. “I haven’t found much on this trip, but I did find one interesting bottle of wine at a wine shop in Union Square,” he said. “It was a Pinot Noir from Adelaide Hills, Australia. I was struck by the complexity of it for $22 a bottle. I always think of Australia as being really hot, but this was a very cool climate wine, really complex and quite feminine. I haven’t had a lot of experience tasting wines like that. Australia might be our next big trip.”

He writes a monthly newsletter about his wine travels. It appears on the Two Rock Wines website (www.tworockwines.com) and is e-mailed to customers on request.

Mr Macdonald got interested in wine while studying international political economy at the University of Puget Sound in Washington State.

“The Pacific Northwest is a region known for its wines,” he said. “The more I tasted wine there, the more I started thinking about how to buy the best wine at an inexpensive price.”

He got a job in finance once he graduated, and worked in Chicago and New York. One of the best parts of his job was trying expensive wines at brokers’ dinners.

“It’s great when you can try them on an expense account,” he said with a laugh.

His interest in wine grew so much that he left the finance industry and did a graduate diploma in grape growing and winemaking at Lincoln University in Christchurch, New Zealand. He then went to work — at Neudorf Vineyards in Nelson, New Zealand and Larkmead Vineyards in Napa Valley, California.

He eventually returned home and worked for HSBC Bermuda before becoming involved with Two Rock Wines.

“If I could have it any way I would be making my own wine,” he said. “I like hands-on things. I like the creative process as well. I like the idea of turning grapes into a consumable product. I am not sure where I would like to own a vineyard. It is a pretty scary industry to get into because of the massive quantity of wine on the market. For right now, we really enjoy choosing the wines and bringing them to Bermuda. Who knows what is in the pipeline though.”

He couldn’t really name a favourite wine, although he loves French wines.

“It depends on what I am eating and what season it is, and how I am feeling,” he said. “There are so many different, beautiful wines in the world. That is what makes what we do at Two Rock so much fun.”

He admitted to having a bias towards small, family wineries. “That is what our business is about,” he said. “It is about finding smaller producers and people in love with the process. We are not trying to buy a wine that will taste the same every year. There is no truth in that; it is just another product. We want something that is reflective of a place and reflective of its growing season.”

•You can find Two Rock Wines at 8 Harvey Road in Paget, Miles Market in Pembroke, Corkscrews in Smith’s and Reid Street clothing store, Atelerie.