Val's love for wine began while stationed in Northern California with the US Air Force. At first it was fun to go on wine tours, but then she started rounding up fellow lieutenants and leading the tours. She'd often return to California wine country and ship cases home, and continued to taste new things and read about everything she had in her glass after leaving California.
Ten years later, after retiring from a 25-year Air Force career, she moved to Italy to begin a wine studies program that changed her life. After a semester of restaurant service, she used her internship time to take on a capstone project to write a text on Tuscan Wines for her teacher; it was used the following year as a course pack for future students. From there she would seek out other learning opportunities, including a program in France, and then back in the states. While she had been asked to give private tastings for friends on Italian and French wines, she found that engaging others with a wine glass in one hand was where she shined.
While continuing various tracks of studies in the US, she funded her education by working for a Napa Valley winery that specialized in DTC sales, wine clubs and private tastings. From there, she took off and started her own consulting business, Vino With Val, LLC, conducting custom private and corporate tastings, consultations, and teaching classes in the local community.
She began teaching classes in 2012, and has since conducted over 200 tastings in homes, conference rooms, galleries and other properties. Her clients include private clients, title and real estate companies, home builders, and financial corporations.
Val is one of 422 Certified Wine Educators in the world through the Society of Wine Educators (SWE), a French Wine Scholar (with highest honors), and holds the Master-Level Champagne Certificate (with honors) through the Wine Scholar Guild, as well as the Level 4 Diploma in Wine and Spirits through the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET).
In 2015 Val and fellow CWE Stephanie Davis, launched the Wine Two Five Podcast, a light, fun, educational entertainment series catered to the consumer and burgeoning professional. They amassed an international following and received calls from industry listeners across the country inspired to achieve higher levels of learning in their own wine education endeavors. The series ran for over 200 weekly episodes, ending in 2019.
Val has served on the Board of Directors for the SWE since 2016, has presented as part of their online, global education webinar series since 2015, and has taught seminars at the annual SWE conferences in Portland and the Finger Lakes. She continues to conduct client tasting events and contribute to content to the digital wine spaces. She has contributed several articles for online publications, produces podcasts for the Wine Scholar Guild, and launched her new wine education podcast in 2019, Glass in Session® Winecast.
In addition to wine credentials, she holds six degrees, including Bachelor of Science degrees in Communications and Business Administration, as well as a Master of Science in Information Systems Management.