My story

People ask me all the time: ‘How did you get into the wine industry and how did you get where you are today?’ It is as if there is a mysterious passageway leading to such fun!

In fact, I did not even start thinking about wine or the wine industry until I moved from Pittsburgh PA to Carmel, CA in the ‘80’s. The Northern California wine country is one of the most captivating and stunningly beautiful; that is where I fell in love with wine, however, believe it or not, you do not gain wine knowledge through osmosis so living there did not teach me what I know today!

It would not be until a few years later, as a culinary school graduate, back on the east coast, working my way through hotel food and beverage and catering positions that I had a local wine distributor salesperson come to my hotel.

He was smart: he knew the large quantity of wine my events team and I could sell as we booked large weddings, business dinners, conventions, and corporate events at the hotel. For him, this translated directly into a nice boost in his monthly sales commission! So, he found our office, introduced himself, held tastings with us and educated us a long the way. Consequently, we sold more wine at that hotel than ever before and the distributor noticed! It was then, that I was hired away from the hotel and into distributor sales when I began my quest to be an expert in food and wine pairing and catering wine sales so I could give back to my industry and assist the hotel event sales managers to be more successful selling wine.

From that moment on I spent my entire career focusing my efforts on building meaningful relationships in the industry while developing innovative sales techniques and training combining my food, wine & spirits knowledge creating successful beverage programs for hotels, caterers, and fine dining restaurants.

Known for my passion and laidback teaching style I developed a unique food and wine pairing session called ‘The “Popcork” Experience: Exploring Food & Wine Pairing’. It is wildly popular and known in the industry as a fun, interactive way to educate through a comprehensive tasting of wines paired with flavored popcorn to show the effects of food and wine paired together!

More about me…

Based in the Napa Valley, I am an edutainer: educating while entertaining! Interactive, down-to-earth learning about wine, food, spirits and more!

I hold an accredited chef’s degree from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco and WSET Wines and Spirits professional certification.