February 19, 2019 – St. Helena, CA – Fellowship award winners have been announced for the 2019 Symposium for Professional Wine Writers at Meadowood Napa Valley. Qualified wine, wine-food and wine-travel writers were selected by a panel of leading wine editors based on their professional editorial status, the quality and originality of their work and their influence in the world of wine writing.
The 2019 Fellows are:
- Ali Akkam, Budapest, Hungary
- Michelle Ball, Lompoc, CA
- Seth Barlow, Little Rock, AR
- Sophia Bennett, Eugene, OR
- Erin Brooks, Napa, CA
- Julie Case, Tarrytown, NY
- Amy Cavanaugh, Chicago, IL
- Ellen Clifford, Los Angeles, CA
- Julia Coney, Lanham, MD
- Tricia Conover, McKinney, TX
- Jonathan Cristaldi, Novato, CA
- Vicki Denig, New York, NY
- Carrie Dykes, Cornwall on Hudson, NY
- Mark Ellwood, New York, NY
- Brian Freedman, Ardmore, PA
- Nola James, Richmond, Victoria, Australia
- Chris Mercer, Bristol, United Kingdom
- Fran Miller, Lafayette, CA
- Frank Morgan, Chesapeake, VA
- Dan Myers, Brooklyn, NY
- Mary Orlin, San Jose, CA
- Jan Parr, Oak Park, IL
- Layla Schlack, Norwalk, CT
- Martin Skegg, Portland, OR
- Sarah Tracey, Brooklyn, NY
- Thomas Ulrich, San Jose, CA
- Bill Ward, Hopkins, MN
- Margarett Waterbury, Portland, OR
Meadowood and the Napa Valley Vintners trade association, the Symposium’s founders, are underwriting this year’s fellowships.
Keynote speakers Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher, senior editors, Grape Collective and founders of Open That Bottle Night, join a robust faculty of writers, editors and coaches including Matt Bean, Editor in Chief, Sunset; Ali Bouzari, culinary scientist and author; Richard Bradley, Editor in Chief, Chief Content Officer, Worth; Julia Cosgrove, Vice President and Editor in Chief, AFAR Media; Ellen Fort, Editor, Eater SF; Mary-Frances Heck, Senior Food Editor, Food & Wine; Erin Kirschenmann, Senior Editor, Wine Business Monthly; Jordan Mackay, Author and Journalist; Karen MacNeil, Wine Educator, Consultant and Author of The Wine Bible; Esther Mobley, Wine Critic, San Francisco Chronicle, and Molly Watson, Editor in Chief, Edible Communities.
Symposium sessions will take place at both Meadowood Napa Valley and The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena, California February 19-22, 2019
About the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers
The Symposium for Professional Wine Writers, founded by Meadowood Napa Valley and the Napa Valley Vintners trade association and supported by The Culinary Institute of America, draws top wine book authors and editors, wine magazine writers and critics, newspaper wine columnists, bloggers and other editorial wine content creators to Napa Valley to speak, listen, debate, explore themes prevalent in contemporary wine writing and network with their peers for four days. A combination of lectures, panel discussions, group and individual writing sessions, wine tasting and fine dining make the Symposium an unmatched career enrichment opportunity for editorial wine, wine-food, and wine-travel writers. Learn more at WineWritersSymposium.org.
