Speaker Biographies
Speakers for the 2010 Symposium for Professional Wine Writers listed below.
Speaker Biographies
READ MORE- Antonia Allegra
Antonia Allegra is a career development and food writing coach. As editor-in-chief, Toni has also launched five magazines, most recently Vine Napa Valley and Appellation, both Maggie-award winning publications. She is also a wine/food and travel writer. She is director and founder of the annual Symposium for Professional Food Writers at The Greenbrier and founder of the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers at Meadowood Napa Valley.
READ MORE- John Ash
A chef, teacher, writer and more recently vintner, John Ash first came to national prominence when he was selected by Food & Wine magazine as one of America's "Hot New Chefs." John has written three books and is on the faculty of the Professional Wine Studies Program at the CIA Greystone.
READ MORE- Eric Asimov
Eric Asimov is the chief wine critic of The New York Times, a position he assumed in June 2004 after having covered wine with The Times' tasting panel and in his Tastings column for the Dining section.
READ MORE- Michael Bauer
Michael Bauer is the executive food and wine editor and restaurant critic for the San Francisco Chronicle. He has been in charge of the food and wine coverage for more than 23 years.
READ MORE- Richard Bradley
Richard Bradley is the editor-in-chief of Worth magazine and author of three non-fiction books, including a best-selling memoir on John Kennedy Jr. He has been a writer and editor for over 20 years and was executive editor of George magazine.
READ MORE- Patrick Comiskey
Patrick Comiskey is a senior contributor for Wine & Spirits magazine, where he serves as chief critic for all domestic wines not from California. His writing also has appeared in Wine Review Online, the San Francisco Chronicle, Food & Wine and other publications.
READ MORE- Doug Cook
Doug Cook is currently the director of search at Twitter, Inc, and founder of Able Grape, the world's largest wine information search engine. Prior to founding Able Grape, Doug was the VP of Web Search Engineering at Yahoo! and Inktomi.
READ MORE- Jonathan Elliman
Jonathan Elliman is the founder of Cephrus.com, a video production and design firm located in Napa, California. Trained as an architect, Jonathan got addicted to photography early on, which led to traveling the far reaches of the globe shooting documentaries.
READ MORE- Jim Gordon
Jim Gordon has been a wine writer and editor for more than 25 years. In 2006 he became editor of Wines & Vines, the magazine for North American winemakers and grape growers. He also directs the annual Symposium for Professional Wine Writers at Meadowood Napa Valley.
READ MORE- Steve Heimoff
Steve Heimoff is a native New Yorker who lives in Oakland. He has written about wine for more than 20 years, first for Wine Spectator, and now for Wine Enthusiast. He has written two wine books for University of California Press and blogs at steveheimoff.com.
READ MORE- Heather John
Heather John writes the Wine & Spirits column for Bon Appétit. She has been with the magazine since 2004, first as a senior editor overseeing the magazine's wine coverage and more recently as a contributing editor.
READ MORE- Louise Kiernan
Louise Kiernan, now a writing coach for the Chicago Tribune, was the lead writer on "Gateway to Gridlock," a report on the American air-traffic system, which won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism
READ MORE- Karen MacNeil
Karen MacNeil is the Chairman of the Center for Professional Wine Studies at the Culinary Institute of America in the Napa Valley. For the last 27 years, Karen has been a writer and educator whose articles on wine and food have been published in more than 50 U.S. magazines and newspapers.
READ MORE- Avis Mandel
An experienced professional life-style, advertising and corporate photographer, Avis Mandel enjoyed a successful career in Minneapolis and Chicago prior to the family's move to Napa Valley.
READ MORE- Frances Mayes
Frances Mayes, the keynote speaker for the 2010 symposium, is the best-selling author of Under the Tuscan Sun and A Year in the World, a widely published poet and essayist and formerly a professor of creative writing at San Francisco State University.
READ MORE- Christian Miller
Christian Miller has worked in the wine industry since 1983, primarily in marketing. He is currently proprietor of Full Glass Research and a founder of WineOpinions.com, where he is responsible for research design and development.
READ MORE- Jeff Morgan
Napa Valley-based winemaker, author and educator Jeff Morgan has written on wine and food for numerous national publications, and his fifth book will be published in 2010. As a winemaker, Jeff makes Covenant and RED C Cabernet Sauvignon in partnership with Napa vintner Leslie Rudd.
READ MORE- Vic Motto
Vic Motto is co-founder, chairman and CEO of Global Wine Partners LLC, specializing in wine industry mergers, acquisitions and investments. His clients include many of the top wine businesses around the world.
READ MORE- Bruce Schoenfeld
Bruce Schoenfeld is the wine and spirits editor of Travel & Leisure and writes frequently for the magazine on wine and other topics. He's a former contributing editor for Wine Spectator.
READ MORE- Stephen Wallis
Stephen Wallis is the deputy Editor of Departures, the lifestyle magazine
published by American Express. In addition to overseeing most of the cultural
content in Departures, he edits and writes stories on travel, food, wine, and
luxury goods.
READ MORE- Gary Walther
Gary Walther most recently served as editor of ForbesLife, the luxury lifestyle magazine published by Forbes Media and delivered to more than 850,000 Forbes subscribers. He has a 25-year editorial career in luxury lifestyle publications.
READ MORE- Stephanie Wilson
Stephanie Wilson is the editorial director for Haute Living magazine, a luxury lifestyle publication with regional editions in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
READ MORE- Molly Wizenberg
Molly Wizenberg writes the monthly column "Cooking Life" in Bon Appetit, magazine, and her first book, A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table, was a New York Times bestseller.
READ MORE- Alder Yarrow
Since January of 2004, Alder Yarrow has been publishing Vinography.com, where he writes daily about wine and good restaurants around the globe.