Upon retiring from a 35 year career in Law Enforcement, I began a new career at Domaine Carneros winery, a beautiful French style Chateau winery in Napa, on a hill with spectacular ambience and views. I enjoyed four years there learning about wine, waiting tables and learning to be a tour guide.
As time passed, I attended the Court of Master Sommelier school in Los Gatos at the Culinary Institute and achieved the Certified Sommelier ranking. Then it was on to the Wine Immersion program at the Rudd Center in St Helena where I acquired the Certified Wine Professional designation.
Obsessed with acquiring more wine knowledge and well on my way to total wine geekdome, I passed the Society of Wine Educators test for Certified Specialist of wine. I took the WSET basic course for Level I Certification I am now studying for Levels 2 & 3 of the WSET. I have acquired the Italian Wine Professional Certification from Italian Wine Central. I am also pursuing the Certified Wine Educator certificate with the Society of Wine Educators and have passed four of the five components and am now awaiting my score on the final component which is a video taped class presentation.
Upon Leaving Domaine Carneros, I moved on to The Hess Collection Winery on Mt Veeder. The winery has a famous contemporary art collection, is one of few wineries in the Valley certified GREEN and offers many different varietals both white and red along with Rose and Desert wines at extremely reasonable prices. It is also a dog friendly winery and offers multiple pairings.
At Hess I began teaching a Wine Analysis class once a month. This class takes 2 1/2 hours and begins with a tour of the winery, then a 90 minute class that offers six wines for analysis. I have had over 400 people take the class. When I am not in the tasting room I am conducting guided tours of the winery where I discuss wine production from the vineyard to the bottle.
I've also worked at Reverie Winery Diamond Mountain and the Jamison Ranch Winery. Both of these wineries are unique in their own way and well worth a visit. Be sure to tell them Bob sent you!