Expertise

Wine Writing

Currently the East Coast Editor for Vineyard & Winery Management, I am also the Mid-Atlantic and Southern Editor for the ground-breaking Oxford Companion to the Wines of North America (2000), a regional editor for Kevin Zraly’s New American Wine Guide and assisted Steve DeLong on his recent Wine Tasting Notebook. I am a member of the Circle of Wine Writers, a professional organization of leading wine journalists based in the U.K.

Consulting

Recently, I have increased the amount of consulting that I do for wineries on the quality, positioning and packaging of their product lines. Clients have included Chrysalis Vineyards, the Williamsburg Winery, Sharp Rock Vineyards, the Michigan Grape & Wine Council, and Kevin Zraly, as a collaborator for 14 states on the second edition of his American Wine Guide.

Event Management

A large part of my job at Vineyard & Winery Management is event management. My two big annual events are Wineries Unlimited, the largest trade show for the eastern industry, where I coordinate the seminar program involving over 60 speakers, and the International Eastern Wine Competition, involving over 2,000 wines and 32 judges. Prior to joining Vineyard & Winery Management full-time in 1999, I coordinated the seminar program at Wineries Unlimited for three years; I’ve now coordinated over a decade of seminar programs at the conference, presiding over a doubling of seminar attendance.

Perhaps the most exciting and rewarding event I was involved with was as the Executive Director of the Virginia Wine Experience in London in May 2007. Timed with the 400th Anniversary of the Jamestown Settlement, our group organized a tasting at Vinopolis in London, featuring a tasting of 68 pre-approved Virginia wines to a trade and media audience. Renowned English wine writers Hugh Johnson and Steven Spurrier were surprised and delighted, and colleague Andrew Jefford published an account of the tasting in the Financial Times of London on 9/1/07.

I also coordinate Virginia wine industry tasting dinners at the C&O Restaurant in Charlottesville, modeled on the industry wine dinners in the Finger Lakes, where people bring a bottle of wine in a brown bag, one person flights all the wines, which are poured blind, and facilitates discussion about quality, style and terroir, as a means of professional education. If you are interested in attending one of these dinners, email me and tell me something about you and your interest in Virginia wine. I also coordinate non-industry wine tastings for the Outdoor Adventure Social Club of Charlottesville, which is both educational and a lot of fun.