Kysela Pere et Fils, LTD. (KPF) was founded in March of 1994 by Master Sommelier Fran Kysela. Fran inherited an interest in wine from his father, who is one of the top collectors in the country and still maintains a 4,000 bottle cellar in Cleveland, OH. While attending graduate school at Cleveland State University & majoring in Zoology, Fran took a position selling Fetzer & Gallo wines for a local distributor (Goodman Beverage). Being a student with little money, he took the job knowing he could use the extra income and thinking, erroneously, that he could work in the wine business "part time". The wine business soon became all consuming and he left graduate school all together.
Flash forward to 2021 and Fran has been in the wine business for 41 years. He has worked as a wholesale representative, wine steward, national sales director and, since founding his business in 1994, a wine importer. In 1989, he received the Master Sommelier award from the British Court of Master Sommeliers. He passed the tasting half of the Master of Wine exam in 1992 and hopes to complete the remainder of the MW exam in the future.