San Francisco Wine School Blog

Check out articles about San Francisco Wine School and read our latest press releases

Insider Interviews with David Furer - Presenting Daniel O'Donnell

Insider Interviews with David Furer - Presenting Daniel O'Donnell

Daniel O’Donnell and I met when I was the token Yank tacked onto a group of esteemed British writers, some possessing MWs. Halfway into what now constitutes a decade residing half-time in Turkey, t...

Fred Swan Interviews SF Chronicle Wine Editor Jon Bonné

Fred Swan Interviews SF Chronicle Wine Editor Jon Bonné

On Tuesday, December 9, I conducted an hour-long interview of Jon Bonné in front of a live audience for the Commonwealth Club. Bonné is the Wine Editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, a two-time...

An Interview with Karen MacNeil

An Interview with Karen MacNeil

We recently caught up with Karen MacNeil, author of the best -selling book The Wine Bible in anticipation of her visit Saturday, May 4th, where she’ll teach her hugely popular class What Makes Grea...

Insider Interview With David Furer - Jean-Charles Boisset

Insider Interview With David Furer - Jean-Charles Boisset

Insider Interview With David Furer - Jean-Charles Boisset With nine French and seven N. American operations, Jean-Charles Boisset has spearheaded his ancestors' Burgundy production into the large...

Student Spotlight: Getting to Know McKenna Pautsch

Student Spotlight: Getting to Know McKenna Pautsch

Student Spotlight: McKenna Pautsch After extensive study with San Francisco Wine School, Pautsch received the Certified Sommelier award from the Court of Master Sommeliers. Find out what makes h...

Student Spotlight: Getting to Know Dana Gurela

Student Spotlight: Getting to Know Dana Gurela

Student Spotlight: Dana Gurela After studying, sipping and working in California wine country for five years, Dana Gurela has brought her expertise and passion for West Coast varietals back ho...

Insider Interview with David Furer - Jacques Lardière of Jadot/Résonance

Insider Interview with David Furer - Jacques Lardière of Jadot/Résonance

Insider Interview with David Furer - Jacques Lardière of Jadot/Résonance The veteran Burgundian winemaker of Louis Jadot and relative newcomer to Oregon's Willamette Valley with its Résonance bran...

Insider Interviews With David Furer - Michel Rolland

Insider Interviews With David Furer - Michel Rolland

Insider Interviews With David Furer - Michel Rolland Consulting enologist Michel Rolland and I first met at 2001's Sommelier Summit at Simi Winery where he hosted a blending seminar. The group of ...

Insider Interviews With David Furer: Brett Davis, MS and Scott Harper, MS

Insider Interviews With David Furer: Brett Davis, MS and Scott Harper, MS

Brett Davis and Scott Harper are Louisville’s two resident Master Sommeliers having both studied and passed the exam together. Introducing myself to them a couple years ago after attending a Bourbo...

Student Spotlight:  Getting to Know Alison Louis dit Alleaume

Student Spotlight: Getting to Know Alison Louis dit Alleaume

Student Spotlight:  Getting to Know Alison Louis dit AlleaumeFrom Spanish and Malagasy origins, Alison Louis dit Alleaume grew up in Switzerland and graduated from the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne ...

Wilbert Herrera | San Fancisco Wine School

Student Spotlight: Getting to Know Wilbert Herrera

Student Spotlight: Getting to Know Wilbert Herrera Wilbert Herrera is an enthusiastic member of the San Francisco Wine School family. He's taken Intro to Blind Tasting, and successfully completed...

Insider Interviews with David Furer - Presenting Dr. José Vouillamoz

Insider Interviews with David Furer - Presenting Dr. José Vouillamoz

Dr. José Vouillamoz is one of the world’s few, and leading, authorities on the origin and parentage of grape varieties through DNA profiling. The Swiss grape geneticist trained with Prof. Carole Me...

Insider Interviews by David Furer - Presenting Jean-Nicolas Méo and Jay Boberg

Insider Interviews by David Furer - Presenting Jean-Nicolas Méo and Jay Boberg

The latest entry into the expanding number of French - especially Burgundian - vignerons into Oregon is that of Jean-Nicolas Méo of Méo-Camuzet and music entrepreneur Jay Boberg with their Yamhill-...

Insider Interviews with David Furer - Presenting Alejandro Fernandez

Insider Interviews with David Furer - Presenting Alejandro Fernandez

I first encountered the wines of Ribera del Duero in 1992 through Pesquera winery, then the only winery of the region with any recognition beyond that of the historic Vega Sicilia. Its founder, Ale...

Insider Interviews with David Furer - Presenting Dr. Patrick Hunt

Insider Interviews with David Furer - Presenting Dr. Patrick Hunt

Stanford University’s Dr. Patrick Hunt will be one of the featured speakers at the Origins of Wine Civilization event. "When working and living in that part of the world it’s inescapable to find th...

Insider Interviews with David Furer - Presenting Bartholomew Broadbent

Insider Interviews with David Furer - Presenting Bartholomew Broadbent

Insider Interviews with David Furer - Presenting Bartholomew BroadbentSince its inception in 1996, US importer Bartholomew Broadbent’s eponymous company has been at the forefront of a few trends i...

Student Spotlight: Alicia Cuadra-Cutler

Student Spotlight: Alicia Cuadra-Cutler

Student Spotlight: Alicia Cuadra-Cutler Alicia Cuadra-Cutler began her love of wine in 2010 while living in Santa Cruz and tasting through the Santa Cruz Mountains. Soon after, she took a position...

Meet Karl Storchmann - Wine Economist

Meet Karl Storchmann - Wine Economist

Karl Storchmann came to my attention in 2005 when I received a notification through the Circle of Wine Writers when serving upon its executive committee that the New York City-based German and othe...

MEET MONIKA CHRISTMANN - INSIDER INTERVIEWS BY DAVID FURER

MEET MONIKA CHRISTMANN - INSIDER INTERVIEWS BY DAVID FURER

Prof. Monika Christmann and I met in Chicago soon after she'd completed her time working on Simi Winery's winemaking team having begun as Department Head for both Oenology & Wine Technology and...

Meet Willi Klinger - Wine Marketing Maestro

Meet Willi Klinger - Wine Marketing Maestro

A life in theatre didn't prove daunting enough for the Viennese Willi Klinger, now the Managing Director of the Austrian Wine Marketing Board filling in his spare time moonlighting as a lecturer at...

Meet Beltrán Domecq y Williams - Insider Interviews by David Furer

Meet Beltrán Domecq y Williams - Insider Interviews by David Furer

Beltrán Domecq y Williams has had an illustrious career. His studies included time at UC-Davis with the illustrious Professor Maynard Amerine, training that later led to Domecq co-authoring with Ja...

Insider Interviews by David Furer - Presenting Patrick Spencer

Insider Interviews by David Furer - Presenting Patrick Spencer

After many years working in restaurant management, later some with a winery near his Oregon home, Patrick Spencer set his sights on a related niche which had at the time been the cause of much hand...

Insider Interviews by David Furer - Presenting Aaron Pott

Insider Interviews by David Furer - Presenting Aaron Pott

Between officing at home and Quixote Winery where his own label, Pott Wines, are vinified, native Californian Aaron Pott looks to the interests of mostly Napa Valley clients who cherish his ability...

Insider Interviews by David Furer - Presenting Paul Hobbs

Insider Interviews by David Furer - Presenting Paul Hobbs

Owner/winemaker of his eponymous winery, Paul Hobbs's exposure to farming started as a child where in upstate New York his father presciently had young Paul taste apples of the same variety grown i...