Laurie Forster
The Wine Coach®

Laurie Forster, The Wine Coach® is a wine educator, writer and author of the award winning book The Sipping Point: A Crash Course in Wine. After a successful career in software sales, Laurie decided she was ready for a life change and began to realize that her biggest passions—wine and people—could be parlayed into a new career. Now as The Wine Coach® she blends her training as a professional sommelier with her experience as a life coach to help people connect with wine and each other. Laurie’s specialty is creating unique corporate keynotes, team building events and group tasting seminars where she can deliver on her mission to demystify wine one glass at a time.

In 2002, she began her wine career in Manhattan where she studied with the American Sommelier Association to obtain her certificate in Viticulture and Vinification. Laurie has since earned an Advanced Certificate with the Wine & Spirits Education Trust (WSET), completed her first step towards certification with the Court of Master Sommeliers and has trained at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley. Her wine travels include France, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, California, Oregon and all up and down the east coast.

Laurie is a regular contributor to several magazines including Baltimore Style and What’s Up Annapolis magazines; a sought after guest expert on radio stations across the country and has her own weekly radio show entitled Something to Wine About® on WBAL 1090AM. Her award winning book The Sipping Point: A Crash Course in Wine, reflects her fresh perspective on wine education and has received rave reviews. To find out more visit: www.thewinecoach.com

David D. Denton, CWE, CSS
Instructor

David is the only American faculty member of the Wine Academy of Spain in Madrid and is a sommelier at Charlie Palmer Steak in Washington , DC. He holds all three certifications from the Society of Wine Educators, the Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW), the Certified Specialist of Spirits (CSS), and the Certified Wine Educator (CWE), and holds the Official Sherry Educator title from the Consejo Regulador of Sherry. In addition, David has passed the Advanced Sommelier exam held by the Court of Master Sommeliers, and is a Certified Bordeaux Educator through the L'Ecole du Vin Bordeaux.. He is the head sommelier for many prestigious events including Robert Parker's master tasting in Logrono, Spain, Staglin Family Vineyards' annual Music Festival in Napa Valley, the Society of Wine Educators annual conference in Monterey, CA, Washington, DC, New Orleans, LA, and Sacramento, CA, and the Vinoble Fortified and Dessert Wine Festival in Jerez, Spain among others. He resides in Arlington,VA with his wife Maria.

Tim O’Hare, CWE, CSW
Instructor

Tim O’Hare, CWE, has a favorite quote from Ernest Hemingway that just about sums up his relationship with wine and grapes. “ Wine is one of the most civilized things in the world and one of the most natural things of the world that has been brought to the greatest perfection, and it offers a greater range for enjoyment and appreciation than, possibly, any other purely sensory thing.” Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon.

Tim O’Hare was born in Washington, D.C. and now resides in Towson, Maryland. He is married with two children and enjoys spending his off hours cooking, reading, gardening, and is passionate about baseball. Tim is a graduate the Baltimore International Culinary College, a former Salesman of the Year with Reliable Churchill Distributors, and has passed Certified Specialist of Wine exam, Certified Specialist of Spirits exam, and the Certified Wine Educators exam through the internationally recognized Society of Wine Educators. He recently passed the first and second levels of the Master Sommelier to become a Certified Sommelier. Also last year, Tim completed the 3rd level of the Advance Program of the Wine & Spirits Education Trust with Merit. In October 2009 Tim became a Bordeaux Wine Trade Educator through the prestigious Bordeaux L’Ecole Du Vin. Tim is currently studying for the Diploma Level for the WSET and next fall he will sit for the 3rd Level of the Master Sommelier’s Exam. Previously, Tim served as the Director of Training at Reliable Churchill and was employed by them for seventeen years.

Presently, Tim is the Lower Atlantic Regional Director for Education & Sales Training for the Charmer Sunbelt Group. In this role he assists in the development of multi level, multimedia, wine, spirit, and beer educational programs that are utilized in the 15 markets the Charmer Sunbelt Group distributes alcohol beverages. He also directs the sales education department for the Lower Atlantic region. The Charmer Sunbelt Group is the second largest wine and spirit wholesaler in the United States with over 6,000 employees.

Caroline B. C. Hermann, DWS, CSW
Instructor

Caroline Hermann holds a Diploma in Wine Studies (DWS) with merit and an Advanced Certificate with distinction from the London-based Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET).  She is a Certified Specialist in Wine (CSW) with the Society of Wine Educators, and is a Master of Wine candidate.  She has researched and written on a variety of global wine issues, from the French wine crisis to the success of Champagne, biodynamic viticultural practices, rosé wine trends, and wine competitions.

Caroline lives in Washington D.C., where she is a WSET and CSW instructor for the Capital Wine School and is in wine retail sales with Whole Foods Market.  Her interest in vineyard management and winemaking stem in part from her longstanding commitment to environmental protection, a commitment she practices every day as an attorney for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

No matter where in the world she lives or travels, Caroline has enthusiastically sought out the best food and wine that region has to offer.  Prior to moving to Washington D.C., she lived in San Francisco where she balanced her law firm responsibilities with exploring California’s most famous Napa and Sonoma areas to its oldest vineyards in the Sierra Foothills dating back to the Gold Rush.  Before law school, she was an equities analyst in international finance with Creditanstalt Securities (now Bank Austria), where she lived in Prague, Czech Republic, and London, England.  There, she acquainted herself with copious vinobrani harvest festivals along the Czech-Austrian border which celebrate the first press burcak, and braved wines from communist state-run wineries.  She also held a teaching fellowship at Athens College in Greece, and embarked on a year-long critical analysis of the finer points of retsina and Greece’s indigenous varietals.  Although she found no vines planted in the Tian Shan Mountains during her multiple China, Kazak, and Kyrgyz treks, she looks forward to China’s emergence onto the global wine stage.

Maria E. Denton, CWE            

Maria E. Denton is an educator, restaurateur and consultant working in the Washington, DC area.  A firm believer in community involvement, Maria sits on the Board of Directors of both the Dupont Circle Merchants and Professionals association, and Historic Dupont Circle Main Streets.  This involvement extends into the wine community as well, as she has been on the board of the Society of Wine Educators since 2008.  Besides achieving Certified Wine Educator with the SWE, Maria is also a Certified Sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers, a Spanish Wine Educator with the Wine Academy of Spain, and a ServSafe Food and ServSafe Alcohol instructor.  You may also find her on Examiner.com as a DC wine writer.

Molly Christhilf Finnegan           

I was bitten by the wine bug over 13 years ago having gotten interested in the culture surrounding wine while studying art history in Italy. I came back to the US and started working at Jefferson Vineyards in Charlottesville, Virginia my senior year of college and then moved to California after graduation. Working for Stag's Leap Wine Cellars in Napa I learned how to make wine, conducted consumer education seminars and I got a BS in Wine Sales & Marketing at Napa Valley College. Wanting to learn more about international wines I worked for Global Wines and Alexia Moore Marketing Co brokering several California & New Zealand properties as well as port from the Symmington family. I have passed the Introductory Level 1 of the Court of Master Sommeliers, earned my Wine & Spirits Education Trust Advanced certificate as well as my Certification for a Specialist of Wine, CSW from the Society of Wine Educators. I am currently as wine sales representative for Winebow, Inc, a distributor who represents 3,000 wines from all over the world and a top importer of Italian fine wines and am working on an exciting new side project of wine & cheese pairing for Cowgirl Creamery.

Michael Franz, Ph.D.           

Michael Franz is a wine writer, educator, and consultant. He is editor of Wine Review Online and a freelance contributor to many national and international wine magazines.

He wrote nearly 300 articles as regular wine columnist for The Washington Post from 1994 to 2005. Franz left the Post in 2005 to help found Wine Review Online as editor and managing partner. Wine Review Online has quickly become one of the world's most widely viewed wine publications, now logging as many as two million hits and 100,000 distinct visitors per month.

Franz is also a wine consultant for 14 restaurants in the National Capital area with combined annual wine sales of more than $10 million. He has conducted more than 1,000 site visits and tastings at wineries across Western and Eastern Europe, South America, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

He tastes approximately 9,000 wines each year, judges wine competitions regularly around the world, and has acted as Chief Judge for international competitions in Washington, D.C., San Diego, New Zealand and China. He has appeared on numerous television shows, has served as an expert witness in several cases regarding the wine trade in Federal District Court, and is interviewed frequently on public radio.