The earliest newsletter of which I possess a copy is dated September, 1968, my thanks for which go to veteran club member Patrick Johnson, who indicates that he was "recruited" to the membership in 1967. Evidently the Club was originally and still at that point exclusively based at Oakland University, in terms of its membership or, at least, its distribution list. The university is located in Rochester, Michigan, which is in Oakland County, and I assume that this accounts for the Club's "official" name, the Oakland Oenological Society. In the September 1969, issue the manager's comments state that the Club had "… emerged (to the best of my knowledge it was never founded!) some seven or eight years ago at Oakland University."

It's earliest and quite possibly original managers were Peter Amann, then on the History faculty, John Beardman, in Art History (if I recall correctly), and Jim Haden, in Philosophy, all at Oakland University.

At some point, Peter Amann migrated to the History faculty at the University of Michigan - Dearborn. Also at some point, Dan Sayles, on the faculty of the School of Education, either at Oakland University initially but at least ultimately at the University of Michigan - Dearborn, was recruited into the managerial ranks. I (Richard Roehl - UM-D, Economics) was recruited to become a manager by Peter and Dan a year or two after I arrived at UM-D in 1976. Vladimir Gzodanovich (subsequently changed to Goss) served as a manager for a short period in the 1980's, until resettling in North Carolina to operate a private art gallery. I recruited John Devlin, UM-D, Physics, in 1994, and John and I recruited Mike Pierce in 2000 and Steve Kuhlman in 2002.

Early on the Club worked with the Bloomfield Gourmet Shop, which may have been the original vendor. Subsequently the Club migrated to other vendors, first to Bottle-n-Basket, where it remained for many years, and then ultimately to Merchant's Fine Wines.