Mia Klein grew up in Hermosa Beach, California. When she was a senior in high school her family relocated to San Francisco. She worked at a wine shop in San Francisco. Klein was a chef working in a seafood restaurant. While at work, she would taste wine, which invoked her interest in wine. She started studying enology at the University of California, Davis, where she worked as a lab assistant for Professor Ann Noble. Klein graduated in 1983.
