I'm very grateful to purple pager Michael Alberty for sending this sad news:
It is with great sadness that I have to report on the passing of Michael Bonaccorsi this past Tuesday. He was a nice, gentle person who we will miss a great deal. When Michael first started making wine I called him up to see if we could get his wines out to Illinois because (a) he is a graduate of the University of Illinois, located here in my hometown and (b) we had heard from Bipin Desai that the wines were spectacular for the price. Over the past few years, whenever we needed a favor or a special magnum for a charity event, Michael always came through for us. I constantly bugged him on the phone to tell me some of the great wine stories he must have accumulated about various celebrities while acting as Wolfgang Puck's sommelier at Spago. But he was always the professional, telling me I would have to wait until he had left Spago for a few years before he would tell any "juicy tales."
We're all going to miss his grace and charm. I'm also going to miss not being able to hear him tell those stories. This is a huge loss for the wine world. A bright new star is gone at 43.
Those who, like me, were not well acquainted with this clearly multi-talented wine man can learn more at bonawine.net. On the home page is a warm tribute to his winemaking skills from fellow West Coast sommelier Larry Stone of Rubicon in San Francisco. (I can attest to the fact that Stone too is a talented winemaker. I served his Siri Sonoma Merlot to some world-famous Pomerol producers and they were very impressed.)