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Contributing Editor Gerald D. Boyd is a Santa Rosa-based freelance writer who
specializes in wine, spirits and travel. An avid wine collector since the 1950s, Boyd began writing about wine in 1971 for the Rocky Mountain News, The Denver Magazine and Wine World magazine.
In 1979, he joined Wine Spectator as managing editor and one year later, he was promoted to editor. Boyd resigned from the Spectator in 1983 to return to freelance writing, a career he has since pursued successfully, with a one-year break to serve as editor of Wine & Spirits Buying Guide, now Wine & Spirits magazine. For eight years, he was the staff wine writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. In addition to penning Wine News features, Boyd contributes regularly to The San Francisco Chronicle, Quarterly Review of Wine, Winestate (Australia), Hotel F&B Executive, Vineyard & Winery Management and Decanter (UK). His byline has also appeared in LA Style, San Francisco Focus, San Jose Mercury News, Dallas Times Herald, Advertising Age and Winetidings. Contributing Editor Jeff Cox is also senior editor at Global Vintage Quarterly. He contributes frequently to Decanter and Fine Wine Folio, among many other publications. A prolific and knowledgeable author, he's written two books on wine — "From Vines to Wines" and "Cellaring Wine" — both published by Storey Publishing. A third book by Cox, entitled "The Organic Cook's Bible," is scheduled for publication by John Wiley & Sons in Spring 2006. A member of the James Beard Foundation, Cox is also the restaurant critic covering California's North Coast Wine Country for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. Additionally, he has hosted two television shows and written 14 books on organic gardening and is a former managing editor of Organic Gardening magazine. Senior Editor Lyn Farmer is a highly regarded authority on wine and spirits with an expertise in Champagne, dessert wines and malt whisky. He was honored with the prestigious James Beard Foundation Award for best wine writing of the year in 2003 and has since been nominated twice more. He is also a member of the magazine's BuyLine tasting panel. Additionally, he is executive director of the Miami Wine and Food Festival, which has raised millions for South Florida charities. Farmer regularly travels to the world's great wine regions, both in his Wine News role and as director of entertainment and special events for Regent Seven Seas Cruises, where he oversees an extensive lecture program focusing on special subjects ranging from antiques and music to, naturally, food and wine. He is also a passionate music lover and teacher, and was for many years program director of a classical music radio station. Farmer began his professional career in the Foreign Service with the U.S. Information Agency specializing in cultural affairs. Today he resides in Miami, Florida, and when not reporting on wine is an avid scuba diver and a novice but hopeful golfer. New Jersey native Kathy Ferguson-Sinnes came to Wine News as a freelance copy editor in 1991 and was hired as managing editor in 1993. A graduate of American University's distinguished journalism program, she previously held editorial positions at the Springfield (N.J.) Leader, U.S. New & World Report and The Miami Herald. With roots in the drinks business - her grandmother owned Corrigan's Village Inn, a landmark tavern in Union, New Jersey, for 50 years - Ferguson-Sinnes has fond memories of sharing a holiday glass of red wine with her father during trips home from college. These days, she favors New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and rosé Champagne, and especially enjoys teaching her two teenage sons, both budding chefs, the virtues of wine at the dinner table. In addition to orchestrating this magazine's editorial flow, Ferguson-Sinnes, who is also a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier South Florida Chapter, delights in covering oceanside wine auctions and South Beach restaurant openings. Health Editor Harvey E. Finkel contributes commentary on the interrelationships of wine and health emphasizing objective medical science, to keep readers up to date on breaking research. An award-winning wine writer in his own right, he also contributed to a number of wine periodicals and has co-authored one wine book. He writes, lectures and teaches extensively on wine and health as an authority on the subject, on which he has written two books. Dr. Finkel is a clinical professor of medicine at the Boston Medical Center, specializing in hematology and oncology, having published many scientific articles and one medical book. He was founding chairman of the Committee on Health and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Society of Wine Educators. Associate Editor Howard G. Goldberg, who spent 34 years at The New York Times as an editor and writer, contributes a feature, Wine Under $20, to the City section of The Times and a column, Long Island Vines, to the Long Island section every Sunday. He spent 23 years at the Op-Ed page, where, toward the end of his tenure, he held the title Senior Editor. He also wrote nightly summaries of Op-Ed content for WQXR, The Times's radio station, for many years. He has been a guest contributor for Wine News since 1992, and has written many articles for the magazine, especially on German wines. Goldberg, who was named associate editor of Wine News in 2004, has been the American auction colum nist for Decanter, in London, since 1998 and has contributed articles to that magazine from the mid-1990s onward. He is also the New York correspondent for decanter.com. A New Jersey native, graduate of Rutgers University in New Brunswick and Manhattan resident, Goldberg has written extensively on Austrian, New York and kosher wines. A Riesling specialist, he created and ran the international Riesling panel at the World Vinifera Conference, in Seattle, in 2000. His articles have appeared in Saveur, Wine & Spirits, Fine Wine Folio and The Jerusalem Report. For about five years, he contributed to "Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book," in which he recommended outstanding producers on the Eastern Seaboard from Maine through Florida, plus Missouri and eastern and western Canada. He has also contributed to the encyclopedic Oxford University Press's "Oxford Companion to Wine." Goldberg is author of "All About Wine Cellars," a paperback that is both part of The Complete Wine Cellar System kit (Running Press, Philadelphia) and a stand-alone title. Contributing Editor Tom Hyland is a Chicago-based writer/photographer who travels the world reporting on wine for numerous publications; in addition to Wine News, his work has appeared in Decanter, Quarterly Review of Wines, Drinks and Saveur. While Hyland, who has been writing feature articles for Wine News since 2005, professes a love for many wines, especially those from Alsace, New Zealand, California and Chile, the wines of Italy are his true passion. Having made more than 30 trips to that country, he is especially interested in the indigenous varieties of Piedmont, Tuscany, Alto Adige and Campania. His expertise on the subject is such that he has served as consultant for the Italian wine section of the 2006 and 2007 editions of Anthony Dias Blue’s Pocket Guide to Wine. Hyland also distinguishes himself as a photographer and has a contract with England’s Cephas Photo Library, the world’s leading source for stock wine images. Before taking up a pen and wine glass as full time, Hyland spent 17 years in the wine business in Chicago. He can be reached via e-mail at thwinewriter@comcast.net. Features Editor Jen Karetnick is also a freelance food-and-travel writer, cookbook author and poet. From 1992 until 2004, she worked as a restaurant critic and columnist for the metropolitan weeklies Miami New Times and New Times Broward/Palm Beach. In addition to developing and occasionally authoring feature articles for Wine News, her byline has appeared in various publications, including Ocean Drive, Women's Health & Fitness, Poets & Writers, Diversion and Fodor's Miami and Florida guidebooks. She is currently the "Sexy Tastes" columnist for Citizen Culture magazine and a contributor on global decor to Rescue magazine. Her gastro-travel column, "Kitsch'n," appears on the literary site, The Drexel Online Journal, and she is a frequent guest on Linda Gassenheimer's "Food News and Views" program on Miami's WLRN public radio. The author of "Around Miami with Kids," Karetnick is co-author of "Raw Food in the Real World" (ReganBooks 2005) and editor for the work-in-progress, Enopoetica: A Collection of Poems Inspired by Wine. She holds a Masters of Fine Arts degree in poetry from University of California, Irvine, and an Master of Fine Arts degree in fiction from University of Miami. She has placed poems in North American Review, The Georgetown Review, Tigertail: A South Florida Poetry Annual, River Styx, Black River Review, Barrow Street, The Spoon River Poetry Review, The Nebraska Review, Sou'wester, Pearl, Journal of New Jersey Poets and The Greensboro Review, among others, and creative non-fiction in The Miami Herald. Combining her interests in poetry and fine dining, Karetnick created and directs Now Taste This!, an event that runs the length of April in honor of National Poetry Month to benefit poetry non-profit organizations. She has been granted significant regional, state and national honors from both poetry and journalism awards programs, including the Association of Food Journalists, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Missouri School of Journalism, and is a member of the Poetry Society of America, Academy of American Poets, Associated Writing Programs and Les Dames d'Escoffier. When not taking care of her husband, two young children, four aging cats and two dogs, she is picking — or picking up — mangos from her 14 trees. European Editor Susan Keevil began her wine career as a "cellar rat," making wine at Rosemount Estate in Australia's Hunter Valley. From there, she never looked back. Upon returning to England in 1990, she carved out a career in book publishing focusing on one subject: wine. Editing the likes of Hugh Johnson, David Peppercorn, Michael Broadbent, Joanna Simon and James Halliday got her completely hooked. She then took her wine exams, culminating in a brave attempt at the rigorous Master of Wine examination. Overjoyed to succeed in the theory and dissertation portions (studying Shiraz/Syrah in all its forms), she stumbled over a tricky practical paper. Boning up on "practical" wine appreciation was never an irksome task, and Keevil enjoys honing her skills in this area on frequent forays to France, California, Spain and Argentina. Further attempts at the "MW" were thwarted by a career move, taking up the editorship of Decanter magazine. Busy times ensued: not only assembling the UK's top wine magazine, organizing fabulous tastings, and getting to know some of the world's most intriguing wine personalities, but traveling the wine world extensively, too. In 2000, she swapped her desk job at Decanter for a freelance writing career that enabled her to become immersed in the New World's up-and-coming wine regions. Australia, Argentina and Uruguay were some of the first to be explored. A love of California wines developed during frequent trips to the state to visit her future husband (who was studying at UCSF). Many interesting interviews and Napa/Sonoma/Sierra explorations later, she subsequently married Edward and lives in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire with their children Max and Annabel. Keevil now makes her name in the UK as award-winning author of the Which Wine Guide - the annual critique of wines on British shop shelves and the merchants who supply them. In addition to her Wine News contributions, she also writes for Wine International, Decanter, TimeOut, Food & Travel and Harpers Wine & Spirit magazine, and is a contributor to several recent books, including Michael Broadbent's "Vintage Wine" (2002). Food Editor Carole Kotkin is an accomplished chef, cooking teacher and author. In 1998, she co-authored "MMMMiami — Tempting Tropical Tastes for Home Cook s Everywhere." When she isn't traveling for Wine News, Kotkin manages The Cooking School at Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo and also writes a syndicated food column for The Miami Herald. Additionally, she co-hosts Food and Wine Talk, a weekly radio program featured on Miami's WDNA 88.9 FM. She is also a frequent contributor to Southfloridagourmet.com, Travellady.com and the Coral Gables Gazette. Other than her regular Wine News features, her writing has appeared in Gourmet magazine, American Airlines magazine and Comair Navigator magazine. Past accomplishments in the culinary arena include stints as editor for the first Miami/South Florida Zagat Restaurant Survey and co-founder and chairman of the South Florida Chapter of The American Institute of Wine & Food; former co-owner of Bobbi & Carole's Cooking School in South Miami; and food consultant for Publix Supermarkets. Among the honors she has accrued, Kotkin was listed by Miami Metro Magazine as one of Miami-Dade's Most Influential Females of 2001 in the hospitality field. Contributing Editor Kerin O'Keefe has lived in Italy since 1989 and immediately fell in love with the country's wines and its rich and varied enological culture. After three years of study in Milan, she became a Sommelier in 1994 and since then has devoted herself to wine writing. Because of her fluency in Italian and her understanding and appreciation of regional traditions throughout the country, she is able to report first hand the changes taking place in Italy's wine scene — both the sensational as well as the subtle. Her passions are for native Italian varieties and wines that can't be imitated elsewhere. Her work regularly appears in both national and international magazines and her first book, "Franco Biondi Santi - Il Gentleman del Brunello," was published in November 2004 by Veronelli Editore.
Contributing Editor Steve Pitcher (wine2words@aol.com) is based in San Francisco, where, since
1994, he has served as president of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the
German Wine Society, a national wine appreciation organization. He is also the
long-time cellar master and program director of Lawyer Friends of Wine, a
venerable wine-appreciation group for attorneys and judges located in San Francisco.
He has been writing about wine since the late 1980s, initially as a columnist
for six years in the San Francisco Chronicle, later for magazines and
Internet publications. He has been contributing to Wine News since 1992, and writing
the Annual Best of California report since 1997. He also currently contributes
on a freelance basis to the Chronicle's Wine Section (with several cover
stories to his credit), as well as other publications.
Contributing Editor Dick Rosano has written hundreds of articles about wine and food for national publications, including The Washington Post, Country Inns, Chile Pepper, and the American Wine Society Journal. He has lectured on wine at the Smithsonian Institution and Johns Hopkins University, and is currently teaching wine classes at L'Academie de Cuisine. Rosano is a member of the American Institute of Wine and Food and the Wine Institute. His book, Wine Heritage: The Story of Italian-American Vintners, was published in 2001. Quite unique, but related to his writing, Mr. Rosano has been making homemade wine for over 25 years, about which he has written many articles appearing in The Washington Post and the American Wine Society Journal. Travel Editor Marguerite Thomas grew up alternatively in both France and California, fertile ground for budding enophiles. Today home base is Baltimore, Maryland, conveniently located within a short ride of three international airports. For Thomas, the wine world is her oyster — from barging through Burgundy, horseback riding in Chile or picnicking in Piedmont — but she also canvasses regions closer to home, from the east coast to the west and points in between. In addition to traveling for Wine News, she reports on wine, food and travel for Saveur and Santé, and writes “The Intrepid Gastronome,” a syndicated monthly column for Tribune Media Services. Executive Editor Todd M. Wernstrom practiced law for 14 years, before giving up his Coral Gables practice in 2001 to write about wine. Since getting his first exposure as The South Florida Gourmet's primary wine columnist in February 2001, he joined Wine News editorial board later that year. In addition to contributing features and helping shape editorial direction, he is a member of the BuyLine tasting panel, a comment columnist, and taster of more than 2,000 wines per year. He has written extensively on subjects as varied as Israel's kosher wines and Budapest's best wine cave. From December 2001 until June 2004, Wernstrom also published Carafe, a newsletter that had international distribution. Within its pages, he explored in great detail topics often passed over by the traditional wine press, such as the underappreciated whites of Italy's Northeast, the remarkable geographic thread linking the best of Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, and the unrivaled but bewildering diversity that is the Loire. In addition to his role as executive editor at Wine News, he is also the wine columnist for Lincoln Road Magazine, Las Olas Magazine and Fort Lauderdale Yachtsman. By traipsing through vineyards in California, Washington, France, Italy and Portugal, among other places, he has made invaluable contacts and developed keen insight into what makes a certain area's wine unique. His observations can occasionally be heard on national radio on the Bloomberg Radio Network and in South Florida on WLRN Public Radio. As a speaker at tastings and seminars, such as at the Miami International Wine Fair where his "Wine 101" classes are quite popular, he shares his belief that the mystery should be taken out of the subject so that more people can feel comfortable buying and ordering wine. He also consults for restaurants, corporations and foreign trade organizations on wine-related issues. Respected by his peers, he has been a judge at the Loire's largest trade show, and was recently tapped to judge by Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, a European-based stager of wine contests worldwide. Currently collaborating on a wine-themed cookbook with Miami's award-winning Jan Jorgensen of Two Chefs restaurant, he has studied wine/food pairings and written about the suitability of restaurant wine lists for their menus believing that no meal is complete without a well-matched wine. |
