Karen MacNeil

In the world of wine, no one combines style, knowledge, skill, passion and presentation better than Karen MacNeil.  The preeminent wine educator, consultant and writer is based in the heart of the Napa Valley where she heads her company dedicated to “bringing wine to living well”.

Karen is the author of the award-winning book, The Wine Bible, a best-selling wine book that has been called the most comprehensive and authoritative book on wine written by an American author.  Karen’s work on wine and food has been published in more than 50 magazines and newspapers including The New York Times, Food and Wine, Saveur, and Town & Country.

Karen was the host of Emmy-award winning Wine, Food & Friends with Karen MacNeil, the first television series on wine in the United States.  This thirteen part series reached a national audience on PBS.  In 2006 her companion book, Wine, Food & Friends, was released.

An educator at heart, Karen is the creator and Chairman of the Rudd Center for Professional Wine Studies at the Culinary Institute of America in the Napa Valley.  The multi-million dollar wine center has been called the “Harvard of Wine Education”.  In 2007, Karen launched the Napa Valley Wine Educators Academy, a global education initiative that attracts instructors from all over the world for a week of intensive study in the Napa Valley.

With her team, Karen creates, customizes as well as consults on unique wine experiences, seminars and programs for corporate clients and individuals.  Clients have included Lexus, Merrill Lynch, General Electric, American Express, Sunset Magazine, JP Morgan, UBS, Mattel and Singapore Airlines, to name a few.

Karen MacNeil received the highest honor awarded to a wine professional in the United States when the James Beard Foundation named her Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional of the Year in 2004.  The following year, she was named 2005 Wine Educator of the Year by the European Wine Council.  Past recipients of the Council's awards have included journalist Morley Safer (60 minutes), filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, and winemaker Robert Mondavi.  In 2007, Karen was honored with the Wine Literary Award by the Wine Appreciation Guild for her substantial contribution to the literature of wine, joining laureates such as Hugh Johnson, Robert M. Parker, Jr., and Jancis Robinson.  The International Wine & Spirit competition recognized Karen as “the voice that has most effectively communicated wine or spirits to the public in the past year” by awarding her the 2008 Trophy for Communicator of the Year.  In 2004, TIME Magazine named Karen “America's Missionary of the Vine."  She holds an Advanced Certified Wine Professional Degree.