It is rare to go to Vino and not see Chuck Furuya working the room, engaging with guests, often telling jokes or making puns that are either really funny or so corny you can’t help but bust out laughing.

Furuya is a partner at d.k restaurants and operates Vino, one of the group’s locations, at Waterfront Plaza.

From Nov. 16 to 19, however, he will be in San Diego to appear on a panel of experts at the annual Sommelier Conference, a high-level wine industry event. It is organized by master sommeliers, masters of wine, hoteliers, wine educators, distributors and others in the industry.

Conferences are crafted for professionals working toward sommelier designations, to broaden their know-how for front-of-the-house work, or amateurs looking to up their game.

The sommelier panel, titled Bottom Line Restaurant Wine Management, will focus on managing a restaurant wine program and the leadership involved in elevating a restaurant’s business success and acclaim. Furuya and his fellow panelists have been tapped to share techniques that have worked for them.

Furuya almost grudgingly confirmed that he is the only master sommelier on the panel. He was, in fact, Hawaii’s first industry professional to attain that certification, and only the 10th American to do so. For 10 years Furuya was chairman of education for the American Chapter of the Court of Master Sommeliers.

Not one to talk about himself, he preferred to heap praise on his fellow panelists. “All those people on the panel, they work the floor. That’s a real sommelier,” he said.

Shelley Lindgren won the 2015 James Beard Foundation award for Outstanding Wine Program for her A16 restaurant and has other top accolades from industry and consumer publications for wine programs at A16 and SPQR restaurants.

“She’s that good,” Furuya said, sharing additional raves about fellow panelists John Lancaster, wine director at Boulevard restaurant in San Francisco; Paul Sherman, sommelier at Valentino restaurant in Santa Monica, Calif.; and Randy Caporoso, editor-at-large of the SOMM Journal and contributing editor for the Tasting Panel magazines.

Caporoso, formerly of Honolulu, will moderate the panel discussion.

“I get asked to these things all the time, but as you know, I’d rather be in the restaurant,” Furuya said.

In this case, with panelists he respects at a top industry event, “I’m flattered to be asked,” he added.

Furuya was reached while on another rare trip out of town, at an educational tasting event in Seattle. He thought maybe three or four people would be enrolled for his workshop, “but there were 20 people signed up,” he said, his voice expressing surprise.

“You have a bit of a name,” your columnist reminded him.

Furuya hopes that when he speaks at any industry event, he can offer inspiration to the next generation of wine professionals so that they truly grasp the “art” of being a sommelier and not just shallow flashiness.

“You can be the best sommelier, or at mixology, or at ‘cheffing,’ but all those skills are learned over time from many different people,” he said.

Furuya writes a monthly wine column for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, appearing in Crave on the first Wednesday of each month, and if he describes a wine as “gulpable,” you can believe it.