About Me
Aqua non historiam facet
Education: studied sociology and education at U. C. Santa Cruz and classical guitar with Dona America Martinez of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Seville, Spain.
Teaching: Instructor for Napa Valley College's Viticulture and Enology department for the past twenty-five years and at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone. Guest lecturer at many universities, including the Wintour MBA program in Europe, and OIV Wine Marketing Program at UC Davis. Speaker at more than eighty conferences throughout the world on wine, wine tourism, wine education, public affairs, and wine marketing.
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Books: With Liz Thach and Janeen Olsen, Wine Marketing & Sales, Strategies for a Saturated Market by The Wine Appreciation Guild, which won the Gourmand International Award in 2008 for the best wine book of the year for professionals. The third edition of that work was published in 2019. With John Crotts and Byron Marlowe, Wine Sales and Distribution, by Rowman and Littlefield, which won the Gourmand Award for 2019. A third book, Artisan Public Relations, is due to be published in 2020. Columnist for Vineyard & Winery Management Magazine for ten years and served on the board of directors of the Society of Wine Educators for many years. With Rick Kushman of Capital Public Radio, currently hosts “Bottle Talk” a weekly conversation about wine. In 2019 recorded a series of lectures on wine for the Great Courses program at the Teaching Company: “The Instant Sommelier.”
Judge at more than 100 international wine competitions. A founding member of the Academy of Wine Communications, a consultant for the International Wine and Food Society in London, a member of the nominations committee of the Culinary Institute of America’s Vintner’s Hall of Fame, and a member of the Wine Marketing and Tourism Conference Advisory Board. Inducted into the Spadarini della Castellania di Soave in 2005. In 2009 honored with a “Life Dedicated to Wine” award at the Feria Nacional del Vino (FENAVIN) in Spain, and in 2018 was given the American Wine Society’s annual Award of Merit, joining such luminaries as Robert Mondavi and Gina Gallo, as well as named the winner of the McPherson Distinguished Teacher Award at Napa Valley College.
Founded Balzac Communications & Marketing on April 1, 1991. Clients there included the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux, Caymus Vineyards, Seagram Chateau and Estate Wines, Consorzio di Chianti Classico, Furmint USA, La Rioja Alta A.S., Constellation Wines, Sogevinus of Portugal, and a host of other wine, food, and regional tourism clients. Now retired from active duty at the agency with the title of President Emeritus. Current Position: Senior Consultant Wine Tourism for Expedia Cruise Ship Centers.
