SONOMA, CALIFORNIA | JANUARY 21, 2015: The Napa | Sonoma chapter of Women for WineSense’s (WWS) Winemaking Roundtable will host Wine Enthusiast Magazine Napa and Sonoma contributing editor Virginie Boone speaking at California’s oldest continuously family-owned winery, Gundlach Bundschu. Founded in 1858, the winery is located 2000 Denmark Street, Sonoma, CA. The Roundtable will be held on February 25, 2015, from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 pm. Ms. Boone will speak to the winemaker’s perspective on writing, working with the press and other media.
ABOUT VIRGINIE BOONE: Wine Enthusiast’s Contributing Editor Virginie Boone has been with the magazine since 2010, reviewing and reporting on the wines of Napa and Sonoma. Beginning her writing career in 1997 with Lonely Planet travel guidebooks, contributing to titles on Northern California, America’s Deep South, South America, and France, the Sonoma-based Boone’s travel assignments led her to California-focused wine coverage, including regular features for the New York Times regional newspaper Santa Rosa Press Democrat, for which Boone has been a contributing wine writer for several years. She is also the author of “Napa Valley and Sonoma: Heart of California Wine Country,” and a regular panelist and speaker on wine topics in California and beyond.
ABOUT THE EVENT: The roundtable meeting will open at 3:30 p.m. with networking in Gundlach Bundschu‘s Bungalow and a winemakers’ cellar tour. At 4 p.m., the group will taste select wines by hosting winemaker and WWS Roundtable member, Anne Dempsey, and then enjoy the speaker’s presentation, followed by a question and answer session. Attendees are encouraged to bring a bottle of their wine for the Roundtable hosts and speakers.
Roundtable chair Julie Hagler Lumgair noted, “We are honored to have Virginie Boone as our guest speaker. Her expertise with the wines of Napa and Sonoma will really connect with our group.” She continued, “The Winemaking Roundtable’s past meeting topics have focused upon the skills women winemakers need but aren’t always easy to get in the daily winemaking environment.” She further explained that, “Held at some of the region’s finest host wineries, these programs have been a fantastic opportunity for women winemakers to connect directly, in a welcoming and quite candid forum, with experts that they otherwise wouldn’t get to meet for personal advice and questions. Some of our recent speakers and hosts have included winemaking and strategic innovation from Francis Ford Coppola’s CEO, Tracy Geldert; media training at Markham with Sonoma County Tourism’s CMO, Tim Zahner; winemaker’s financial finesse with St. Supéry’s CFO, Lori Felando, and winemaker career development at Vineyard 29 with Courtney Andrain of The Cypress Group.”
ABOUT THE WINEMAKING ROUNDTABLE: The Winemaking Roundtable meets approximately five times a year, taking a harvest break. Each meeting provides a great time to reconnect and meet new colleagues. The free roundtable meeting is open to WWS Winemaking Roundtable members and, as space allows, to other interested women winemakers and viticulturists who have either emailed and/or received RSVP guest confirmations through the Winemaker Roundtable Chair. (See below.) Please, no walk-ins by non-members.
Details of this event are at http://wwsnapasonoma.com/events/winemaking-roundtable-feb-2015/. To RSVP, or for any questions on this event or future WWS Winemaking Roundtable events, please contact Ms. Lumgair at Julie@Lumgair.com.
ABOUT WWS ROUNDTABLES: WWS’ eight current professional roundtables serve to provide a safe and confidential environment to meet in small peer groups on a bi-monthly or quarterly basis. According to WWS’ Professional Development Director Susan Kornblatt Idell, “Members network, provide advice and support for one another, as well as foster educational occasions by inviting guest speakers in their fields and discussing ‘hot issues’ facing members in their day-to-day work.” She added, “Multiple Roundtables have developed for our members in finance, accounting and human resources fields in the wine industry. We also have roundtables in winemaking and the marketing/direct-to-consumer fields.”
ABOUT WWS: Women for WineSense is a not-for-profit organization 501(c)6 formed in 1990 to help promote WWS celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2015 and serves to help its members advance their careers in the wine industry by providing educational events, as well as aid wine enthusiasts in developing their wine knowledge. The Napa/Sonoma Chapter currently has more than 325 members of which 75% are professionals in the wine industry. To join or learn more about WWS’ roundtables, contact Susan Kornblatt Idell at ProDevDirector@WWSNapaSonoma.com, and for membership, please contact Ellen Reich Luchtel at Membership@WWSNapaSonoma.com or visit the WWS chapter’s website: WWSNapaSonoma.com.
